New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani faced a fresh wave of conservative fury on Tuesday after invoking Ronald Reagan during an 18 May speech in the Bronx, where he defended a new city-run grocery store and openly rejected the former Republican president's famous scepticism of government.
For context, Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and Uganda-born lawmaker, has already become a lightning rod in US politics, long before cutting the ribbon on a publicly operated supermarket. His election as mayor of America's largest city unsettled Republicans and moderate Democrats alike, and his policy agenda, from housing to food pricing, has routinely been denounced on the right as hard-left social engineering rather than municipal governance.
Zohran Mamdani Turns Reagan Line On Its Head
Speaking at the Bronx launch of what City Hall bills as the borough's first city-run grocery store, Zohran Mamdani opened with a line few expected from a self‑described socialist.
'Standing here this morning, I cannot help but think of the words of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan. He famously said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help,'' Mamdani told the crowd on Monday, 18 May. 'It's a good quote, but I disagree.'
He then twisted the line to fit his core argument about cost-of-living pressures in New York.
'I think nine more terrifying words are actually, 'I worked all day and can't feed my family,'' he said, before laying out why his administration believes the state should intervene directly in the food market.
Mamdani said the city would 'use the power of government to lower prices and make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table,' insisting that when government understands itself as 'serving the very working people that it has left behind, time and again, it can make a difference in the most pressing struggles facing our city today.'
The policy itself is straightforward enough on paper: a municipally run grocery that, according to Mamdani's pitch, can leverage public resources to offer cheaper staples in a borough where many residents live with tight budgets and limited retail options.
The symbolism, however, is anything but modest. A socialist mayor quoting Reagan while promoting government-run shops was always going to land like a provocation in conservative circles.
Conservatives Brand Zohran Mamdani A 'Fully Deranged Marxist'
The backlash arrived almost instantly, much of it playing out on X, formerly Twitter, where Mamdani has become a favourite target for right-wing commentators.
Eric Daugherty, chief content officer at the conservative outlet RightLine News, reacted in all caps. 'What a FREAKING DISASTER! He REALLY thinks this will work,' he posted, later escalating his attack by calling Mamdani a 'FULLY DERANGED MARXIST' and warning New Yorkers to be 'prepared for utter failure.'
🚨 JUST IN: Ugandan Mayor Mamdani goes FULL DERANGED MARXIST, announcing 5 city-run grocery stores, starting with a 20K square foot venue in the Bronx
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 18, 2026
"Reagan said the 9 most terrifying words in English are I'm from the government and I'm here to help...I disagree! 9 more… pic.twitter.com/BewWw4xFSV
The GOP's official channels piled in as well, labelling the mayor a 'communist' in social media posts that offered more invective than policy analysis. The language echoed the kind of Cold War era rhetoric Reagan himself once used, albeit now aimed at a mayor opening a grocery store rather than a rival superpower.
🚨 JUST IN: Ugandan Mayor Zohran Mamdani is now ON HIS KNEES, privately meeting and BEGGING rich business owners to stay in New York City
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 19, 2026
The 3rd world scammer is flailing!
He met with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as the company signaled a shift to RED TEXAS as socialist tax… pic.twitter.com/hAfurCvm5f
Andrew Kolvet, a leading figure at youth-focused conservative group Turning Point USA, accused Mamdani of fundamentally distorting Reagan's warning about state overreach. He said the mayor had 'flipped Ronald Reagan's warning upside down' and argued that Mamdani's answer was 'government-run grocery stores that will use taxpayer advantages to undercut private competition.'
BREAKING: NYC Mayor Mamdani just flipped Ronald Reagan's warning upside down: "I disagree."
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) May 18, 2026
"We are going to use the power of government to lower prices and make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table."
His answer is government-run grocery stores that will use… pic.twitter.com/8mCJxzohTs
The criticism rests on a familiar conservative fear, not entirely unfounded, that once government starts directly competing with private businesses, the playing field tilts. Supporters of the project would counter that private competition has not exactly delivered cheap, accessible food to every corner of the Bronx.
Neither side, it should be said, has yet to produce hard evidence as to whether this specific store will meaningfully distort the market or fill a gap it claims already exists. Until data on pricing and local business impact emerge, many of these arguments remain ideological predictions rather than measurable outcomes and should be taken with a degree of caution.
A Long-Running Feud Over Zohran Mamdani's Politics
The outrage over the Reagan line did not appear out of nowhere. Zohran Mamdani has been framed as a symbol of the American left's most radical impulses almost from the moment he emerged on the national stage, and high-profile critics have tried to freeze that image in place.
In January, comedian Bill Maher devoted a segment of his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher to the question of what, exactly, Mamdani is. 'Democrats seem to be having this debate about whether or not Mayor Mamdani is a socialist or a democratic socialist. Let me settle it. He's a straight-up communist,' Maher told viewers.
Maher did not argue that such beliefs should disqualify Mamdani from office. 'It's fine. It's a belief system. He's allowed to believe it, and people are allowed to vote for it,' he said, before warning liberals that if they pretend otherwise 'like he's just going through a goth phase, they're going to lose more elections. This is not a communist country.'
The label has stuck. Actor Jon Voight has urged Donald Trump to 'stop' Mamdani's rise, while Trump himself has claimed, unverified, that the New York mayor 'calls him all the time.' None of this has been substantiated in the available reporting and should be treated sceptically unless corroborated.
