Speaking from George Washington’s desk, New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered an address for America's 250th birthday in which he criticized ICE, capitalism, and the United States more broadly.

Surrounded by a group of recently naturalized American citizens, Mamdani framed the U.S. as a “nation of contradictions.”

'The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.'

"We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more. We see monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections," he said in remarks released on July 3.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, further critiqued American capitalism and overseas military action.

“We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands … and we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few."

"I see America in a health insurance industry that exploits the sick … in corporate landlords for whom negligence is a business model … when we spend our tax dollars on bombs and bailouts, when we sell our elections to the highest bidder."

The mayor also appeared to take a jab at President Trump, whom he has openly referred to as a fascist, saying, “Those ideals upon which our nation was built — they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime.”

Throughout the speech, Mamdani focused on America and New York City as a story of immigrants fleeing hardship in search of a better life.

"Despite laws enacted by the federal government to bar their entry, despite sweatshop fires that killed hundreds of women, despite riots aimed at their very existence, immigrants made homes here in New York City, and they helped to make New York City."

Drawing from his personal experience of migrating from Uganda at age 7, Mamdani, who became a U.S. citizen in 2018 and holds dual U.S.-Ugandan citizenship, said, "From the air, we could make out the promise of America, the promise of the beautiful patriotic work of rendering America, year after year, a little more faithful to its founding ideals."

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He then turned to ICE and criticized the deportation of illegal immigrants.

“We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans. … We see America each time neighbors link arms with neighbors, without asking how long they have lived here or what papers they have, as ICE invades our neighborhoods.”

Mamdani offered his interpretation of patriotism, a sentiment that currently sits at a historic low for the Democratic Party, according to a recent Gallup poll.

"There are some who respond to those who ask for more from America with a simple refrain. 'Love it or leave it,' they say. But patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. … It is precisely because we love this nation that we will not leave it."

He also addressed the concept of American exceptionalism.

“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."

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for New York governor, blasted the mayor over his address.

“Mamdani’s 4th of July Address was a dark and vindictive appraisal of America’s past, present and future,” Blakeman said. “America is a beacon of freedom that has created more prosperity for everyday people than any other civilization in the history of the world. No wonder people from all over the world crave to come here. Mamdani is a dangerous subversive who must be stopped.”

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