NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered his July 4 speech sitting behind George Washington’s desk inside New York City Hall — calling out the Donald Trump administration for its anti-immigrant policies. “For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best,” he said, surrounded by a group of recently naturalized American citizdns holding American flags.“We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.”Mamdani condemned the “small,” “weak” and “unoriginal” ideologies that have sought to define America within “the arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal.” “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,” he said.Mamdani, born in Uganda, became a US citizen in 2018.While his speech riled the Republicans, billionaire Bill Ackman stoked a different row, claiming that Mamdani was sitting on the wrong side of the desk. “The best evidence that @NYCMayor Mamdani has not held a job is the fact that he is sitting on the wrong side of the desk. And listen to his words. On a day when we, and in particular, our leaders should be celebrating the 250 years of our nation’s history, he attacks us and what makes our country great. Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists are grave threats to our present and our future,” Ackman said only to be trolled for his low IQ as social media users pointed out that it is a partner’s desk, open on both sides, allowing two partners to share the desk sitting face to face and the drawers are on both sides.“No, there are drawers on both sides because it’s meant to be a shared desk with two people sitting at it, one on each side. It makes sense that sharing would be some sort of scandal for a billionaire like you, though,” one snubbed Ackman.“Money clearly doesn’t buy IQ. @BillAckman really thought Mamdani picked that side of the desk by accident, bless his billionaire heart. I wish being a New Yorker, he knew that the historic George Washington desk at NYC Hall is a partner’s desk, intentionally designed with seating on both sides so two people can face each other as equals, not a traditional boss-and-subordinate desk,” another wrote.
