How Indian-origin Zohran Mamdani used the Trump playbook to beat Andrew Cuomo - and become Democratic Mayoral Nominee

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Donald Trump didn’t just break the political mould—he shattered it with a Twitter feed and a MAGA hat. He turned every rally into performance art, every scandal into a storyline, and every insult into a headline. Mamdani took that same understanding—that politics is now pure spectacle—and swapped the anger for aspiration. Like Trump, he didn’t drown voters in policy. He made them feel something. Trump had chants and nicknames. Mamdani had reels and subway beats. Both knew that in an attention economy, coherence is optional—what matters is dominance of the feed. One built a wall of grievance. The other, a montage of hope.