Mamdani vs the Likud Mafia
It’s important to pay attention when Texas public pension funds, NYC real estate, and Likud-aligned agendas all start overlapping.
Even though I’m not a socialist, watching the NYC real estate criminal class shit their pants over mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, winning the primary is undeniably satisfying. His platform—rent freezes, price controls, and holding war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu accountable—speaks to a city buckling under the weight of unchecked housing costs and political inertia.
Feel-good rhetoric can rally a base, but it’s not policy. The idea of arresting a foreign head of state may be appealing, but no New York City mayor has the authority to override international law or diplomatic immunity. It’s theater that makes for a great soundbite, but it's not grounded in legal or political reality.
What matters more is whether candidates like Mamdani are willing to go after the true forces hollowing out our cities: dirty money flooding the real estate market, transnational criminal networks, and mass-scale displacement enabled by global political complicity—including from longtime U.S. allies. When spyware built by Israeli firms ends up in the hands of drug cartels, it’s fair to ask who benefits from these so-called security alliances and what a Mayor Mamdani might do about it.
Vornado Realty Trust and the Migrant Crisis
Let’s rewind to 2022 for a moment. Remember when Texas Governor Greg Abbott made headlines by flying undocumented migrants to New York City, turning immigration into a political stunt? In response to the crisis, Mayor Eric Adams turned to housing migrants in hotels.
This plan was backed by a no-bid contract awarded to the Hotel Association of New York City Foundation, a nonprofit tied to the Hotel Association of NYC. One of the chairmen of this organization is Fred Grapstein, Executive Vice President of Vornado Realty Trust’s Hospitality Group, who has held the role since 2018.
That controversy overlapped with another strange connection: former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent failed mayoral bid had backing from Vornado Realty Trust, a REIT giant with ties to the Kushner family and financial roots in both New York and Texas.
Here's where things get even more tangled.
On March 6, 2025, Governor Abbott appointed Patrick “Pat” Frost to the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) Board of Trustees—a body that manages pension funds for Texas state workers. Just two months later, ERS reported a new investment: 35,000 shares in Vornado Realty Trust, worth about $1.47 million.
Now ask yourself: Who benefits when rents go up, especially with a sudden influx of migrant tenants that creates demand? Vornado and its investors.
Dirty money is being washed through property deals, and it’s distorting housing markets in cities across the U.S. It’s worth noting when public pension funds, real estate, human trafficking, and political agendas all start overlapping.
I think Lauren Balik makes an interesting point. What if the goal is to move the criminals in New York City to the Likud mafia’s natural habitat in South Florida?
Long-Term Solutions
Price controls might offer a temporary lifeline in the face of today’s housing affordability crisis, but they’re far from a long-term fix. If we’re serious about creating sustainable housing solutions, we need to tackle monopolies and money laundering.
That said, Mamdani does have strong allies like Lina Khan, a true antitrust warrior and a force to be reckoned with. They have the ability to show what a principled, real “America First” policy could look like, but we need one that isn’t steeped in grievance politics that both the left and right depend on for their base.
The Democrat who figures out how to deliver that vision—patriotism without paranoia, reform without revenge—could change everything. Maybe even win the presidency in 2028 and finally unite the populist right with the populist left.
If you have any tips, you know where to hit me up on X (@DCinTejas) or message me on Substack.
-DeAnna Calderón
As welcome as they've been in recent years (as Eric has highlighted), the responses are still/perpetually too little, too late. Whac-A-Mole continues. Little choice in the short term, though: keep at it.
As for any moves, Brooklyn seems unlikely to be vacated. Outposts in every state likewise.
The current relevant window on the dysfunction is the exploitation of the rank choice voting "system" wherein Cuomo and Adams will still be on the ballot for the general election.
(Interestingly, my mayoral contest decades ago in my former city of residence was, in hindsight, a microcosm of this one in multiple ways, real estate "stakeholders" prime among them--with a side of soziopathy. The sitch there--and perhaps statewide--appears worse than ever on those fronts.)