New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a speech marking America’s 250th anniversary to push back on an exclusionary vision of the country, criticizing recent immigration policies and rhetoric without naming President Trump directly.
Speaking from behind George Washington’s desk in City Hall and flanked by recently naturalized U.S. citizens, Mamdani argued against the idea that welcoming more people makes the nation weaker. He said some of the powerful insist that America belongs only to those with the ‘right accent’ or ‘right shade of skin,’ and warned that such thinking reduces the rest of the country to gratitude for mere permission to be here.
Mamdani’s office told NBC News the mayor intended the address as a major statement for the semiquincentennial — a step onto the national political stage that followed recent Democratic primary wins by three candidates he had endorsed who defeated incumbents.
His remarks came hours before President Trump planned his own 250th-anniversary speech at Mount Rushmore. In a symbolic moment, Mamdani stood with new citizens waving U.S. flags the same week the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, a decision that undercut a core plank of Trump’s immigration agenda.
‘The work of fulfilling the values first enshrined in the Declaration of Independence endures, and it belongs to us all,’ Mamdani said, noting that the newest Americans standing with him were proof of that ongoing project. He also spoke personally: born in Uganda and naturalized in 2018, he said he remembers the joy of becoming an American.
The mayor framed division as a political tool — ‘the oldest’ and ‘cheapest’ trick — used by leaders who profit by turning people against one another. He argued that across American history, including 250 years ago, those forces of division were repeatedly defeated by what he called the forces of progress.
Closing with a forward-looking appeal, Mamdani urged Americans to reach for the nation’s founding ideals. He said those principles are strong enough to withstand authoritarian threats, but only if citizens actively pursue them.
‘Our nation is a work in progress,’ he said, calling the effort to improve and perfect the country a daily responsibility. He described it as a privilege to live in a nation everyone can help shape and a responsibility to honor the sacrifices of those who came before by bringing America closer to the greatness many have seen when they looked on these shores.
