{"id":6403,"date":"2026-08-12T08:37:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6403"},"modified":"2026-08-12T08:37:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:37:31","slug":"mamdanis-radical-wife-rama-duwaji-cant-be-a-private-citizen-but-get-a-taxpayer-funded-escort-to-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6403","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s radical wife Rama Duwaji can’t be a ‘private citizen’ but get a taxpayer-funded escort to Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I just returned from a lovely weeklong trip to Italy\u2019s Amalfi Coast.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be glad to hear that no NYPD officers had to accompany me to ensure my safety while I enjoyed lemon gelato and gnocchi alla Sorrentina.<\/p>\n

Read more Holiday-hating Francesca Hong loses to moderate David Crowley in Wisconsin gubernatorial primary<\/a><\/p>\n

Why? Because I\u2019m a private citizen, and as such am not entitled to a taxpayer-funded security detail of New York\u2019s Finest.<\/p>\n

Easy, right?<\/p>\n

Tell that to Dora Pekec, Mayor Mamdani\u2019s spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Pekec announced that first lady Rama Duwaji willl soon be traveling to the Middle East \u2014 and will be taking a few boys in blue along for her protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon the strong recommendation of the NYPD,\u201d Pekec said, \u201cthe first lady\u2019s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which, it turns out, was news to the NYPD: The department, a spokesman said on Tuesday, \u201cdoes not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both ways<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Because irony is Mamdanistan\u2019s greatest natural resource, Duwaji\u2019s trip just happens to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly \u2014 a trip likely to keep the NYPD busy now that Mamdani has encouraged his followers to take to the streets and protest.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a delightful debacle, and yet another reminder \u2014 as if more reminders were needed \u2014 that nothing good happens when the college theater kids take over America\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n

Yet the affair raises two pointed questions, and they\u2019re no laughing matter.<\/p>\n

The first has to do with what role, exactly, Duwaji plays in her husband\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

To hear the mayor tell it, his missus is absolutely, resolutely, positively a private person.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the line Hizzoner takes every time a new report reveals the depths of his wife\u2019s depravity.<\/p>\n

Did Duwaji cheer for Hamas after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023?<\/p>\n

Did she crow that the Jewish state had no right to exist?<\/p>\n

Did she choose to illustrate work by an author, Susan Abulhawa, who described Israelis as \u201crootless, soulless ghouls\u201d?<\/p>\n

Read more Russian national arrested with nearly 800 pounds of meth in \u2018one of the largest\u2019 busts in Louisiana history<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t bother me with such trifles, said the mayor: \u201cMy wife is the love of my life,\u201d Mamdani told the press, \u201cand she\u2019s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, like the cat in Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s famous thought experiment who was somehow both alive and dead at the same time, Duwaji has managed to be both private and very, very public \u2014 sitting for a glamorous photo shoot with New York Magazine one moment and clamming up the next.<\/p>\n

This most recent controversy, then, is a good reminder that City Hall can\u2019t have it both ways.<\/p>\n

If Duwaji is a public enough figure to demand a measure of protection that isn\u2019t guaranteed to her by law, she\u2019s also public enough to sit down with the press and do some \u2019splaining.<\/p>\n

And then, there\u2019s the question of the trip itself.<\/p>\n

Why, pray tell, is the city\u2019s first lady ignoring the US State Department\u2019s warning not to travel to Syria and Lebanon \u201cfor any reason\u201d?<\/p>\n

And if the trip\u2019s ultimate purpose is, as City Hall insists, to \u201cvisit family,\u201d why is she willing to put NYPD officers at risk to do so?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called corruption<\/strong><\/h2>\n

These are not just petty qualms; they\u2019re perfect windows into the Mamdani administration\u2019s mindset \u2014 one in which Beirut is much nearer to heart and mind than Borough Park, say, and in which the city\u2019s public servants are required to serve the very private interests of the mayor and his wife first and foremost.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

There\u2019s a simple English word for this mindset: It\u2019s \u201ccorruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

From wasting $5.2 million of our dollars to pay the salaries of hand-picked propagandists to demanding that cops risk their lives and waste their time and our money to accompany his wife as she pals around with her kin in some of the world\u2019s most feverishly anti-American nations, Mamdani is giving us a master class in misconduct.<\/p>\n

We always knew the mayor was fond of musical theater.<\/p>\n

But we never figured he\u2019d turn New York City into his own real-life staging of \u201cEvita.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liel Leibovitz is editor at large for Tablet and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Traumatized\u2019 NYC couple finds stranger lounging in apartment, claims doorman gave intruder keys<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYC first lady Rama Duwaji has managed to be both private and very, very public \u2014 sitting for a glamorous photo shoot with New York Magazine one moment and clamming up the next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nMamdani's radical wife Rama Duwaji can't be a 'private citizen' but get a taxpayer-funded escort to Syria - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6403\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mamdani's radical wife Rama Duwaji can't be a 'private citizen' but get a taxpayer-funded escort to Syria - 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