New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is driving the right absolutely crazy.

Conservatives predicted disaster if he won. Then he won. They predicted wealthy New Yorkers would flee. They haven’t. And now, just months into his administration, they’re desperately searching for evidence that New Yorkers have finally come to their senses about the supposedly socialist menace running their city.

Enter The Wall Street Journal.

“Mamdani’s Honeymoon With New York Is Over,” the Journal headline declared Thursday. The story’s subhead was equally definitive: “New York City mayor faces messy rollout of pied-à-terre tax and fraying relations with local politicians.”

To be sure, Mamdani’s administration botched the rollout of its new tax on luxury second homes.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Pre-K and 3-K students build a snowman during a press conference in Morningside Heights Feb. 25 in New York.AP

The city sent roughly 17,000 notices to property owners who might be subject to the tax, including longtime New Yorkers who actually live in their homes and therefore appeared to qualify for exemptions. The Department of Finance also published a supplemental property-tax roll covering more than 900,000 properties, creating widespread confusion over who was actually being targeted. 

Homeowners sued, and a judge temporarily halted the rollout before an appeals court allowed it to resume Thursday while the legal fight continues.

It was not the administration’s finest hour.

But is that evidence that Mamdani’s “honeymoon” with New Yorkers is over?

Hardly.

The Journal also noted that President Donald Trump is threatening legal action over the tax, as though that somehow demonstrates Mamdani is in political trouble. Quite the opposite, in fact. If Trump is against a policy, odds are good it has merit.

Then there was the polling evidence the Journal offered to prove its thesis.

“A Siena Research Institute poll released Wednesday indicated a growing divide between Mamdani supporters and detractors,” the story reported, noting that a record-high 44% of likely New York voters viewed Mamdani unfavorably.

Sounds ominous!

Except the same poll found Mamdani’s statewide favorability at 47%—actually up slightly from June.

And then there’s the number that matters: Among likely New York City voters, Mamdani’s favorability rating is a whopping 69%.

Mamdani runs the Big Apple. Who cares if voters in Buffalo or the suburbs like him? They aren’t his constituents. And among the people he actually governs, a 69% favorability rating is the envy of virtually every politician in the country.

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And as much as the Journal also gives plenty of space to wealthy New Yorkers complaining about Mamdani’s efforts to tax them more, along with his moves to oust some of them from influential city committees and boards, the reality is that New York is New York. The wealthy aren’t quitting it. 

While the Journal is doing its damndest to platform wealthy New Yorkers complaining about Mamdani’s efforts to tax them more, the threatened billionaire exodus remains just that—a threat. According to data compiled by Money Wise, luxury real estate sales in the city are booming, including at the very top of the market. High-end office leasing remains strong. And real estate giant JLL has dismissed the supposed “mass exodus” from New York as a myth. The rich may complain about Mamdani, but they still really, really want to be in New York. 

And why wouldn’t they? Do the math.

If you are worth $1 billion and conservatively earn 10% annually on that fortune, you’re making $100 million a year by doing nothing more than breathing and continuing to invest your money.

Drew Sheneman/Tribune Content Agency

That’s more than $8 million per month. Roughly $2 million per week. Roughly a quarter-million dollars every single day.

Are these people really going to give up everything New York City offers them to save what amounts to a rounding error in their balance sheets?

It’s telling that billionaire Citadel Securities founder Ken Griffin, for all his whining about the tax and threats that it could jeopardize his company’s New York expansion, remains deeply invested in the city. Citadel has more than 1,800 employees in New York, and Griffin is moving forward with a new $6 billion Park Avenue skyscraper. Why not move that massive project to Florida, Ken? 

Turns out New York City has some leverage too.

So to recap, the Journal thinks Mamdani’s honeymoon is over because his administration screwed up the rollout of one tax and a bunch of extremely rich people don’t like being asked to pay more.

Meanwhile, 69% of the people he actually governs view him favorably.

Mamdani’s honeymoon will end. Running a major city is a thankless job, and it’s hard to think of a big-city mayor in recent years who emerged from the experience politically unscathed. There will be mistakes, unpopular decisions, scandals, crises, and plenty of opportunities for New Yorkers to turn on him.

But that moment hasn’t arrived yet, no matter how fervently conservatives at The Wall Street Journal might wish it had.