Behind closed doors, the mayor, Mamdani, picked up the phone, his fingers tight around the receiver, a knot of tension in his chest. He dialed the number that had become synonymous with power, with audacity, and with unpredictability: Donald Trump. The conversation was tense, measured, and fraught with consequence. Mamdani’s voice carried a mix of authority and incredulity as he warned of the risks—a city on edge, the specter of violence in crowded streets, and the political fallout that would reverberate far beyond city hall. He spoke of war, not in the abstract sense of foreign policy papers or military briefings, but war that could seep into New York’s neighborhoods, that could affect children walking to school, that could unnerve communities still recovering from previous crises. Venezuelan families, many of them long-time residents of Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, braced themselves. They didn’t know if the capture of Maduro was merely a headline in some distant newspaper or the start of a chain reaction that would ripple into their daily lives, forcing them to reconsider the safety of their streets, their homes, their routines. Continue reading…
