Zohran Mamdani released a video of himself interviewing people on the street in Queens and the Bronx who had voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election the previous week. It was one of the first of the viral posts that propelled him into the spotlight and ultimately helped him all but capture the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York.

Hello Swampians, it’s Jonathan Derbyshire here, the FT’s US opinion editor, filling in for Ed. Forgive me if it seems parochial, but I’d like to devote this edition of Swamp Notes to Zohran Mamdani’s victory in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary here in New York City.

President Donald Trump called Zohran Mamdani a "communist from New York" and called his primary win "a terrible thing for our country." Mamdani is a self-described democratic socialist who won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York.