Politifact: Don’t Call Mamdani Communist When He Talks Like One

Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat nominee for mayor of New York City, is a socialist. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which endorses him, and his platform is filled with socialist/communist ideas.

Mamdani envisions government-run grocery stores, free bus fares, free childcare, and government housing.

But PolitiFact, which fancies itself the nation’s ultimate fact checker, has produced two pieces declaring President Donald Trump’s social media post calling Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic,” false.

The first item, written by Ella Moore, Amy Sherman, and Caryn Baird, simply challenged Trump’s post. Notably, PolitiFact only investigated the communist claim. It did not challenge the claim that Mamdani is a lunatic.

“Mamdani’s platform calls for making transportation, housing and groceries more affordable, but experts say he hasn’t espoused key tenets of communism, such as government takeover of industry and private property,” the PolitiFact piece reads, and it stresses that “Mamdani does not call for getting rid of private ownership.”

But he doesn’t have to “call for” it for his policies to make it happen.

PolitiFact failed to mention Mamdani’s 2020 social media post in which he praised a communist mayor in India, saying this is the kind of mayor New York City needs. Politifact claimed, “We won’t dwell on the latter post because Mamdani’s point isn’t clear.”

The second piece, written by Sherman and Baird, responds to an email PolitiFact received from the White House Press Office that had links to Mamdani’s 2021 presentation for the DSA, talking about “seizing the means of production,” a philosophy straight out of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

Ignoring that solid connection, PolitiFact does a second fact check, titled “In Context: Zohran Mamdani’s use of phrase ‘seizing the means of production.’ What’s it mean?”

Mamdani literally says the end goal is “seizing the means of production,” which does not yet have the same level of support at this moment. He said it is critical that his movement doesn’t leave one issue for another “That we do not meet one moment and look at only what people are ready for.”

Employing zero critical thinking, and after asking a few “experts,” including Mamdani’s campaign spokesperson, PolitiFact sticks to its original finding.

“Mamdani’s views in the mayoral race do not reflect communism, and experts found his 2021 remark too brief to reach detailed conclusions,” PolitiFact says, as if his 40-minute Zoom presentation was the only evidence available for consideration. “Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including via free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores. That is not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses. Mamdani has not called for the elimination of private ownership in his mayoral campaign.”

It is as if PolitiFact is writing campaign advertising for the guy. Eliminating private ownership is exactly what Mamdani’s housing plan calls for.

“We can establish community land trusts to gradually buy up housing on the private market and convert it to community ownership,” Mamdani promises. “We can fully commit to a new era of social housing.”

What does PolitiFact think will happen if Mamdani implements his plan to create a network of city-owned grocery stores with the mission of lower prices? To accomplish that, he will give government stores an unfair advantage. That will kill private ownership.

“We will redirect city funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores,” Mamdani says on social media. “The stores will operate without a profit or having to pay property taxes or rent, and we’ll pass on those savings to you.”

Mamdani further explains that his government stores will “partner with small businesses and nearby farms and sell at wholesale prices.”

He may not be “calling for it,” but Mamdani’s plan is a slow dance that ends with seizing the means of production. You are not supposed to notice it happening, but PolitiFact should have told you. Cheap groceries sounds nicer than seizing the means of production. Once the government is the only game in town, it can dictate any price, and choose which foods will be on the shelves.

Free childcare sounds good too, if you want the government to raise your children. But remember, during COVID, Pennsylvania required children aged two and up to wear masks while in state-licensed childcare facilities.

In the United States, we have been uncomfortable with the word socialist because it is a short walk to communist. DSA (a nonprofit, not a political party) blunts the truth of socialism by coupling it with the word democratic and running DSA candidates through the Democrat Party. It is honest to call him a socialist and fair for his political opponents to call him a communist, although Marxist may be more on the nose.

PolitiFact describes itself as “a nonpartisan fact-checking website to sort out the truth in American politics.” It is largely funded by Poynter Institute, a nonprofit that trains journalists. Yet with three staffers on the case, twice PolitiFact failed to recognize that socialist Mamdani’s policies are on the path to communism.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.