Hizzoner, the Mayor of New York!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

At least four major American cities are entering the New Year of 2026 in full victory mode.  Yesterday the Trump administration announced that it was ending its attempt to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon.  The major political retreat comes after the US Supreme Court last week in a six to three vote rebuked Trump's efforts to send troops into Chicago, something Trump had been intent on doing despite protests from the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois.

The mayors of Los Angeles, California, and Portland, Oregon had also been protesting the presence of National Guard troops in their cities, as had the governors of those states.

Trump announced his surrender yesterday evening on social media in his trademark petty manner:

"We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland despite the fact CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact."

Troops had been deployed in Los Angeles earlier in the year, but had only been "staged" in Chicago and Portland where they were performing very limited duties.  Trump's crime estimates for all three of those cities seem to have not been based in actual, measurable fact.

Trump continued his social media screed with this threat:

"We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - ONLY a question of time!"

Oink, oink, and more oink!

(Pa Rock thinks he will have tacos for lunch today, yes, he does!)

The other big city victory moment came in New York City last night at midnight.  Just after the New Year's ball dropped in Times Square, 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the city's first Muslim and Democratic Socialist mayor in the historic subway station located beneath City Hall in Manhattan.   His oath of office was administered by New York Attorney General Leticia James, an official the Trump administration has been unsuccessfully trying to indict for months as part of its personal retribution agenda.  Mayor Mamdani was sworn into office on a Quaran, the Muslim holy book.  

The beautiful Old City Hall Station was chosen for the initial swearing-in as a nod to Mayor Mamdani's push for more accessible public transit.   That symbolic ceremony was a private affair with limited attendance.  

Later today the new mayor will be above ground where he will be officially sworn into office in a large public event held on the steps of City Hall.  That ceremony and swearing-in will be conducted by Mamdani's good friends and fellow Democratic Socialists, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City.

Several blocks of street parties are also planned for downtown Manhattan after the mayor's formal inauguration.

Then Mayor Mamdani will roll up his sleeves and get to work!