Tik Tok On The Clock But The Party Don’t Stop

His first formal press conference last week was in fact restricted to only “content creators” and closed to mainstream journalists (“City Hall aides said the online reach of the 78 attendees totaled roughly 82 million people”) as his administration picks up where his campaign left off when it comes to social media:

There was Zohran Mamdani — same suit, same beard, same Instagram handle — once again peering into the camera to talk to his 11 million followers, as he had in countless campaign videos.

But now, Mr. Mamdani — Mayor Mamdani — was speaking from his new office at City Hall, sitting behind the freshly polished desk once used by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, flanked by an American flag and striped drapes trimmed in gold tassels.

As Mr. Mamdani spoke about his plan to convene “rental rip-off” hearings to hold landlords to account, the pseudo-informercial’s treacly elevator music and fake television static blurring the screen kicked in.

Mr. Mamdani, in his first full week as mayor, seemed eager to bring the spark that had made his local campaign a global phenomenon into a considerably less freewheeling new gig.

[. . .]

Mr. Mamdani’s team seemed eager to hold onto the very-online-ness of his campaign.

The team documented every announcement, meme and meal on social media: the chicken and spiced potatoes he ate for dinner at a Bangladeshi restaurant in Astoria, Queens; his ride on the Q70 bus on the day transit fares increased to $3 a ride; his first night working late from his new office, illuminated by a semicircle of desk lamps.

[. . .]

Seven days into his term, he strode into the stately Blue Room at City Hall — a space typically reserved for the most formal announcements and events.

Mr. Mamdani took his place at a lectern emblazoned with the city’s official seal, under a portrait of Alexander Hamilton framed in filigreed gold. He looked up to find a sea of iPhone cameras staring back at him; the attendees were not mainstream media journalists but rather a group of content creators who had become a crucial part of Mr. Mamdani’s public relations strategy during his campaign.

“It is a privilege to be gathered here today in a building that belongs to the people of New York but has been too long withheld from the people of New York,” he said.

At the end of the news conference, Mr. Mamdani turned around, held his phone above the podium and smiled for a selfie with the group.