Dem
47
GOP
53
We wrote yesterday about Donald Trump's decision to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals series between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. If we were professional political advisors, and Trump had asked us whether it was a good idea, we would have said, "No. Stay away." There are the various problems we laid out in yesterday's item, namely that it's just too disruptive for the other attendees at the game, and it's obvious grandstanding. We forgot to add a planned paragraph—and many readers who noticed the oversight wrote in—in which we were going to add that screwing around with a Knicks finals game, in deep-blue New York City, is going to result in many loud and lusty choruses of booing. Do you really want those clips to be all over social media by Monday night, Mr. President?
If Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-New York City) came to us with the same question... well, it would be a tougher answer. Finals series like this are very much matters of civic pride and civic identity, such that the mayors of the competing cities will make branding-centric bets (like, "If the Red Sox win, I'll send you a case of California wine, and if the Dodgers win, you send me a case of Boston clam chowder"). Further, Mamdani is clearly a much more serious Knicks fan than Trump is, or ever was. And, of course, mayoral security is not nothing, but it's nowhere near as disruptive as presidential security.
However, mayoral security is going to be at least a little bit disruptive to the others in attendance. Further, Mamdani's "man of the people" populist image does not square too well with attendance at an event where even the "cheap" seats cost $4,000+. Not too many Joe Sixpacks have that kind of coin laying around, to be spent on something that is ultimately only 2-3 hours' entertainment.
So, again, it would be a tough question for us. We don't know if it was a tough question for Mamdani and his people, but we do know that he has announced that he will be there. He did tell reporters that "I will be in a very different section of the stadium," which somewhat implies he'll be up in the nosebleed seats, thus providing a contrast with the courtside seats Trump will probably occupy. We wouldn't have thought you could make the statement "See! I'm not an elitist!" while occupying a seat that cost more than many Americans make in a month, but Mamdani may have found a way to do it.
Note that, as reader D.M. in Alameda, CA, brought to our attention, these issues would be muted some if Trump sits in a luxury box instead of courtside. That is certainly possible; he's buddy-buddy with Knicks owner James Dolan, and Dolan definitely sits in his luxury box for most games. Still, we're only talking "muted" here, not eliminated. Nosebleed seats vs. luxury box still carries some very clear connotations in terms of class and privilege. Meanwhile, Trump will still be shown on the jumbotron a couple of times, affording ample opportunity for booing.
There is some chatter about whether Mamdani and Trump will meet at some point, while they are in the same general vicinity. This is the "news" angle, at least for most outlets, though we don't find that question interesting at all. Maybe they will meet, maybe they won't—they've met before, and they got along fine. No, we think the "messaging" angle is considerably more interesting, and that is why we devoted this entire item to it. (Z)