Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds explained Friday why he believes Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is headed for failure.

Mamdani was officially sworn in as mayor of New York City on Jan. 1, beginning his term that day after winning the 2025 mayoral election. Appearing on “The Ingraham Angle,” Donalds said Mamdani will fail because he promised sweeping new programs despite New York City operating on a Florida-sized budget, arguing the math simply does not support the agenda.

“It’s just going to be more failure. First, if you want to talk about the city of New York’s budget, it’s comparable to the state of Florida’s budget. Comparable. And we have 23.5 million people in Florida. This is how insane they are,” Donalds said. “He wants to continue to add to it. It’s not going to work. It’s not going to come together because he’s not going to be able to find the resources. And that’s why this is going to be a failure.”

Donalds said last fall’s election reflected broad economic frustration, adding that many voters backed Mamdani less out of ideological alignment than a desire for basic financial relief.

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“I think if you’re going to talk to the election, I think people in our country, what they’re looking for is relief overall. They want to have an ability to make money, to be able to put a roof over their head, put food on the table, buy a home, raise their families,” Donalds added. “That’s what everybody wants in our country for the most part. And so I think you do have some voters who heard the affordability message against, quite frankly, another candidate or two who really had no message, and they decided to go with Mamdani.”

Donalds warned New Yorkers who backed Mamdani to brace for a rough stretch.

“This is not going to be pretty for the city of New York because this man has wrote a lot of checks that he simply cannot cash,” Donalds said. “Because he’s not going to create an economic engine that’s going to create value and wealth where he can even deliver these programs or deliver them consistently over time. It’s just not going to come together.”

During his campaign, Mamdani promised free buses, free child care, rent freezes, and large-scale construction projects, but institutional limits sharply constrain his ability to carry out those plans. The New York state legislature controls taxation, and Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul must sign off on any increases. The mayor faces major hurdles funding his agenda—especially after Hochul rejected higher taxes on the wealthy in 2024 and as some of Mamdani’s proposals would run afoul of federal law.

Under the New York State Constitution, the city must balance its books annually and keep borrowing below a cap tied to property values, a ceiling Hochul sought to raise by $12 billion over two years, but it has not been finalized. While the mayor can shift existing dollars with approval from the New York City Council, decisions on new taxes and expanded debt remain with state officials, though portions of the agenda can move forward without their approval.

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