New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered a Fourth of July address from City Hall that broadly targeted the Trump administration's immigration policies, framing them as exclusionary and contrary to American values. Speaking alongside 10 newly naturalized citizens holding miniature flags, Mamdani reflected on his own path to U.S. citizenship in 2018.
"The frontier may be closed, we may have walked on the moon, but the work of fulfilling the values first enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, that work endures, and it belongs to us all," Mamdani said Friday.
Mayor's Message of Inclusion
Mamdani cast immigrants as impactful contributors to America's progress, drawing a stark contrast to recent campaign-style speeches by President Donald Trump at 250th anniversary celebrations. Trump's speeches have focused on preserving monuments and included attacks on political adversaries.
"You each hold a special power, the power to determine what America means," Mamdani told the new citizens.
The speech, delivered at the writing desk that once belonged to President George Washington, did not directly name Trump but was a clear rebuke to the president's immigration crackdown and politics of exclusion.
Historical References and Critiques
Mamdani quoted Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense," which argued the U.S. should be a haven for those escaping political and religious oppression in Europe. "As Thomas Paine once wrote, this new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty. Hither have they fled," Mamdani said.
The mayor also addressed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, describing them as "masked agents terrorizing our streets" and "spiriting" undocumented New Yorkers away. He characterized the policy approach of "the powerful" as "an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom."
Redefining Patriotism
Mamdani sought to reframe patriotism as more than reverence, but also the ability to dissent, condemning those who say "love it or leave it."
"America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit. How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal," he continued.
"Patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every march led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time, it is precisely because we love this nation that we will not leave it," the mayor said. "After all, who loves America more than those who have sacrificed so much to make it free?"
The mayor's address came just hours before Trump was expected to speak at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday evening.
