The Dictatorship
I know exactly what the vicious racist attacks on Zohran Mamdani are meant to do
After Zohran Mamdani became the presumed Democratic nominee for New York mayor last week (which this week was made official), elected Republicans erupted with a racist and Islamophobic backlash that should have shocked the nation’s collective conscience — but this is 2025, and Donald Trump is back in the White House.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., dubbed Mamdani “little muhammad” and called for the Trump administration to consider denaturalizing and deporting him. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said his rise was a sign that New York had forgotten 9/11. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted an image of the Statue of Liberty in a black burqa.
What I’ve come to realize over time is that the brochure promise of American multiculturalism comes with an asterisk.
In a comment I found particularly repugnant, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, commented on a 2023 video interview in which Mamdani eats rice with his hands while discussing his heritage — Mamdani’s parents are Indian, he was born in Uganda, and he moved to New York when he was 7 — that “civilized people in America don’t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.”
The racism has not been confined to the right. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., falsely claimed that Mamdani has made “references to global jihad.” (She later apologized.) During the Democratic mayoral primary, a leaked mock-up of a mailer from a super PAC backing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo showed an image of Mamdani that appeared to make his beard look darker and thicker than it is. (A spokeswoman for the PAC told The New York Times that the image had been created by a vendor but was not going to be used; however, the leak circulated widely on social media.)
Mamdani is now in the crosshairs of the president. Trump has relished the opportunity to launch a new birtherism campaign, questioning Mamdani’s citizenship, and threatened to arrest him if he does not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as mayor (assuming he wins his general election). White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has declined to rule out Ogles’ call for denaturalization proceedings, saying the congressman’s claims “should be investigated.”
The concerted attack on Mamdani reveals something crucial amid Trump’s legal offensive against the meaning and rules of American citizenship: Multiculturalism is not just a “nice-to-have” quality of democracy. It helps hold the whole thing together. Without it, democracy tilts quickly toward something resembling fascism.
The way Mamdani’s critics have used his ethnic and religious background as a weapon against him is a phenomenon I know well. I was born and raised in the United States as the child of Pakistani immigrants during George W. Bush’s war on terror. I saw firsthand how American identity can seem to vanish when you’re on the wrong side of an authority figure or a political debate.
I’ve experienced a lot of the standard fare for a male with a Muslim-sounding name and some darker features: invasive racial profiling while traveling, racist and violent harassment on the subway, racist harassment by the police, xenophobic questioning about my background from people both well- and ill-intentioned and racist jokes at most places I’ve worked.
The use of racism to delegitimize my political views has been a persistent frustration. As a journalist of color, I’m used to my work being met with racist responses over social media and email on a near-daily basis. For the most part, I’m able to tune it out.
But I’ll admit to being occasionally rankled by reader messages laying out the “reasons” I do not belong here because the values of “your people” or “your culture” or “your Quran” (I’m sure this crowd does not care that I’m a fervent atheist). And to be clear, these racist notes are not exclusively from MAGA die-hards. Some of this dreck comes from self-described Democrats. For example, ostensible liberals have claimed my criticisms of Kamala Harris could only be explained by the sexism inherent to my ancestry.
Right-wing media has taken plenty of swings at me over my perceived foreignness. In 2023, a column I wrote critiquing the imperialistic undercurrents of “Top Gun: Maverick” went viral across the right-wing media ecosystem and inspired an entire panel discussion on Fox News. In a blatant dog whistle, the New York Post included passport photos from my Instagram account. The Daily Mail got its fix by citing random social media posts saying the Pakistani constitution would not allow me to get away with my column — as if that had some bearing on what an American could say in the States — and insinuating that I was an ingrate, rather than someone exercising my rights. I was doxxed, and my inboxes were filled with death threats and the “get out” variety of racist insults. The subtext of it all was: How dare you come into our country and say this.
What I’ve come to realize over time is that the brochure promise of American multiculturalism comes with an asterisk. In the political arena, first-generation Americans and racial minorities are celebrated under certain terms and conditions, but if they violate them, their status can just as quickly be used to stigmatize them as alien and un-American. The project of inclusiveness can be rescinded when the citizen in question becomes politically inconvenient. In the hands of right-wing nationalists, it is a tool for intimidating and culling the opposition.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist favored to win the mayorship of the biggest city in America, has violated the terms and conditions. He has made the mistake of being an immigrant Muslim, a charismatic leftist and an unapologetic critic of Israel all at the same time. In an earlier time, Mamdani might have been attacked purely at the rhetorical level. But coming as Trump attacks citizenship rights, free speech and due process, the attacks on Mamdani foreshadow a ghastly future: an America that uses vulnerable citizens’ undesirable political views as a pretext for stripping them of citizenship. At the very least, we’re seeing a political movement that seeks to enact that get out vision.
Mamdani recognizes the way racist attacks operate as a tactic to pick off political threats. Here is what he said in response to Trump’s threats against him:
He said those things about me … less so because of who I am, because of where I come from, because of how I look or how I speak, and more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for: I fight for working people. I fight for the very people who have been priced out of this city, and I fight for the same people that he said he was fighting for.
Robust multiculturalism and democracy are intimately interconnected. When immigrant rights are honored and first-generation Americans’ citizenship is considered as irrevocable and full as white citizens’, then it makes it far harder for Trump and other right-wing nationalists to try to redefine the criteria for citizenship and have the country’s aspiring autocratic leader pursue the idea of granting and rescinding citizenship at will. That requires sticking by multiculturalism consistently, because a principle abandoned at a time of discomfort or inconvenience is not a principle at all.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for BLN Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Blue Light News, and he has also been published in, among other places, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Intercept. You can sign up for his free politics newsletter here.
The Dictatorship
Federal court rules against new global tariffs Trump imposed
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.
A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.
The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are “invalid″ and “unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote.
The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs.
If the administration appeals Thursday’s decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.
At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, were set to expire July 24.
The court’s decision directly blocked the collection of tariffs from three plaintiffs — the state of Washington and two businesses, spice company Burlap & Barrel and toy company Basic Fun! “It’s not clear’’ whether other businesses would have to continue to pay the tariffs, said Jeffrey Schwab, director of litigation at the libertarian Liberty Justice Center, which represented the two companies.
“We fought back today and we won, and we’re extremely excited,” Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun!, told reporters Thursday.
The ruling marked another legal setback for the Trump administration, which has attempted to shield the U.S. economy behind a wall of import taxes. Last year, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare the nation’s longstanding trade deficit a national emergency, justifying sweeping global tariffs.
The Supreme Court ruled Feb. 28 that IEEPA did not authorize the tariffs. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to establish taxes, including tariffs, though lawmakers can delegate tariff power to the president.
Dave Townsend, a trade lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney, said the ruling will open the door for more companies to request that the tariffs be thrown out and that any payments they’ve made be refunded.
“Other importers likely will now ask for a broader remedy that applies to more companies,” Townsend said, though he cautioned the case could also reach the Supreme Court.
Trump is already taking steps to replace the tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court in January. The administration is conducting two investigations that could end in more tariffs.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is looking into whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. It is also investigating whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.
The Dictatorship
Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve trade deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said in a Thursday social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year’s trade framework by July 4.
The announcement appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25% tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a “great call” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the U.S. president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
“A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!” Trump posted. “I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels.”
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the U.S. would charge a 15% tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10% tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
The Dictatorship
In the wake of the Virginia ruling, where does the national redistricting arms race stand?
In Virginia, a majority of the House of Delegates voted to approve a new congressional district map that was designed to help Democrats add as many as four seats in the U.S. House. A majority of the state Senate agreed, as did the commonwealth’s popularly elected governor. The issue then went to the people of Virginia, and a majority of voters backed the redistricting initiative, too.
A majority of the Virginia Supreme Court, however, rejected the plan anyway. MS NOW reported:
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved congressional redistricting plan, ruling that Democrats violated constitutional procedures when placing the referendum on the ballot for last month’s special election. […]
In its 4-3 decision, the court on Friday found that the process used to place the amendment on the ballot did not comply with Virginia’s constitutional rules governing how such proposals must be approved by the legislature before being presented to voters. As a result, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the amendment from being certified and implemented.
For Democratic efforts on the national level, the ruling is an unexpected gut punch, especially given the fact that after Virginia voters approved the overhauled map last month, it appeared that Democrats would be able to keep pace with the GOP as part of the broader redistricting fight.
What’s more, the state Supreme Court ruling comes on the heels of a similarly brutal blow after Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices gutted the Voting Rights Act, which opened the door even further to an intensified Republican effort to erase majority-Black congressional districts in the South.
Given all of this, it’s easy to imagine many Americans responding to the head-spinning developments with a simple question: “So where do things stand now?”
Before we dig in on that, it’s worth pausing to acknowledge the absurdity of the circumstances. For generations, states redrew congressional district lines after the decennial census. There were limited exceptions, but in nearly all of those instances, mid-decade redistricting only happened when courts told states that their maps were unlawful and needed to be redone.
The idea that politicians would simply choose to start redrawing maps, in the middle of a decade, in pursuit of partisan advantages, was practically unheard of.
Last year, however, Donald Trump, fearing the results of the 2026 midterm elections and the possible accountability that would result from Democratic victories, decided that the American model needed to be discarded. It was time, the president said, to pursue what one White House official described as a campaign of “maximum warfare” in which Republican officials in key states would embrace gerrymandering without regard for fairness, norms, traditions or propriety.
The goal was simple: Deliver Republican victories in congressional races long before Americans had a chance to cast their ballots.
The result was an arms race that’s still going on — and here’s where things stand.

Texas: Republicans in the Lone Star State got the ball rolling last summer, acting at Trump’s behest and approving a map designed to give Republicans five additional U.S. House seats. It touched off the national arms race.
California: Responding to Texas, Democratic officials in the Golden State, as well as the state’s voters, approved a map of their own designed to give Democrats five additional U.S. House seats.
Missouri: In September, state Republicans approved a map designed to give the GOP one additional seat.
North Carolina: In October, state Republicans approved a map designed to give Republicans one additional seat.
Ohio: While the redistricting effort in the Buckeye State wasn’t as brazen as it was elsewhere, Ohio’s new map diluted two Democratic-held districts, creating GOP pickup opportunities.
Utah: A state court approved a new map that will likely give Democrats one additional seat.
Florida: Just this week, Republicans completed the process on a new map designed to give Republicans as many as four additional seats.
Tennessee: Also this week, Republicans approved a new map designed to give Republicans one additional seat, taking advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.
Louisiana: While the newly redrawn map in the Pelican State hasn’t been formally unveiled, it will reportedly add one additional Republican seat.
Alabama: Republicans are currently moving forward with plans for a map that would give Republicans two more seats.
It’s important to emphasize that some of these maps are currently facing legal challenges, while others are still taking shape. Most of these maps would take effect during this year’s election cycle, but there’s still some uncertainty surrounding the implementation date in some states.
Nevertheless, the Virginia map that enjoyed popular public support was prepared to help mitigate an unprecedented Republican abuse. The state Supreme Court in the commonwealth appears to have removed that option.
After Virginia voters had their say, many GOP officials questioned whether the entire gerrymandering gambit had been a waste of time and effort. In the aftermath of two highly controversial court rulings, Republicans are suddenly feeling a lot better about the whole scheme.
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