The Daily Populous Thursday January 1st, 2026 day edition
Authored by usatoday.com and submitted by Crossstoney

Updated Jan. 1, 2026, 1:11 a.m. ET

Zohran Mamdani was sworn into office at midnight by state Attorney General Letitia James inside the old City Hall subway station, a landmarked Romanesque Revival station that is no longer in use.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a fellow democratic socialist, is slated to administer the oath of office at a public ceremony on Thursday afternoon.

“This inauguration is a celebration of the movement we built, the mandate we won, and the city we are prepared to lead,” Mamdani said.

Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office as New York City mayor after midnight on New Year’s Day, after a once-improbable rise to power saw the 34-year-old democratic socialist crush a six-decade state political dynasty and charm an effusive President Donald Trump at the White House.

He called taking the office "the honor and a privilege of a lifetime" after signing the paperwork and paying a $9 filing fee − with exact change − to make it official.

Mamdani, surrounded by his family, was administered the oath by New York Attorney General Letitia James under the Spanish-tiled arches of a landmarked former subway station below City Hall in Lower Manhattan.

In brief remarks following his oath, Mamdani called the setting "a testament to the importance of public transit to the vitality, health and the legacy of our city." He also announced Mike Flynn as his Department of Transportation Commissioner.

Mamdani, a former state assemblyman from Queens, is the city’s 112th mayor, and the first Muslim and first person of South Asian descent to lead America's largest city and business and cultural capital.

He took the oath on the Quran, making him the first mayor of New York to do so, according to the New York Times. The Times reported Mamdani would use his grandfather’s Quran and one that belonged to Arturo Schomburg, the Black writer and historian for the two ceremonies.

The underground ceremony precedes his public inauguration and a massive block party in the afternoon. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Brooklyn native and fellow democratic socialist, is set to publicly swear in Mamdani outside of City Hall.

Mamdani’s first day will be marked by tens of thousands of Gothamites expected to gather along city streets. His transition team said it would be more public than smaller swearing-in ceremonies, which typically were reserved for 4,000 ticketed guests.

Mamdani takes over from centrist Democrat Eric Adams, the scandal-scarred former mayor who left office after one term.

Four years ago, Adams took his oath of office in a high-profile ceremony in a crowded Times Square just after the ball dropped to ring in 2022.

Adams, 65, dropped his reelection bid amid corruption investigations targeting him and half a dozen top aides, and allegations of cozying up to the Trump administration − seen as a negative in the heavily Democratic city.

Mamdani won the recent Nov. 4 general election with more than a million votes, beating former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. His campaign upended local and national politics with an ambitious − critics say unfeasible − platform to tackle the cost of living through a rent freeze on a million city apartments, free buses, and free child care.

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.

-eYe- on January 1st, 2026 at 06:10 UTC »

I was nearly run over by all the billionaires suddenly leaving.

Guy-Manuel on January 1st, 2026 at 05:50 UTC »

One good thing to come out of 2025

HandWashing2020 on January 1st, 2026 at 05:40 UTC »

Good luck Mayor Mamdani