New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sparked backlash this week by taking credit for something critics say had nothing to do with him.
Prior to his being inaugurated into office, the New York City Council approved several proposals requiring “third-party food and grocery delivery services” to set their minimum tipping option to 10 percent and to more prominently display the tipping section on their apps.
Because then-Mayor Eric Adams neither signed nor vetoed the proposals, they automatically became law after 30 days and subsequently took effect in January, right around the time Mamdani assumed office.
Yet to hear Mamdani tell it, he’s the one who concocted the whole idea:
Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%.
In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we’ve put $104 million back in delivery workers’ pockets.
This is…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) July 29, 2026
“In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we’ve put $104 million back in delivery workers’ pockets,” he wrote in the tweet above that critics now decry as being dishonest.
The mayor’s office has rejected the criticism.
“A law is only as good as its implementation,” a spokesperson told Fox News. “We have been intentional about enforcing the laws on the books so that we are putting money back into the pockets of working New Yorkers.”
But critics didn’t buy the mayor’s excuses:
This guy is a fantastic lying politician.
He had literally nothing to do with this. City Council passed the bill last August and 419
Eric Adams never signed it. 30 days the bill became law. It went into effect when Mamdani was in office. He just taking the credit. https://t.co/fK7cmBA8Pe— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) July 30, 2026
Other critics pounced on Mamdani for allegedly raising prices.
“[Y]ou are trying to say that you forced Uber and Doordash to make it that New Yorkers pay more for their food deliveries by having the default tip amount be a lot higher,” one critic tweeted. “Socialism 101 — have others pay for things and make as if it’s your accomplishment.”
Coming soon — $50 avocado toast https://t.co/eGV4MOEJds
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 30, 2026
Finance podcaster Joseph Carlson also accused Mamdani of raising prices.
“What really happened: They forced delivery drivers to be paid minimum wage of $22/hr. This wage is paid by higher fees passed on to DoorDash or Uber customer. Since the customer was already paying these higher fees, these apps made tipping optional. Then New York required them to also be tipped on top of the higher fees,” he tweeted.
“So now New York (residents) get to enjoy paying both a high base pay and a tip on top of it. The customer is double-paying for delivery. All of this cost is passed onto the New Yorker resident. They’re paying more than the market demands for a product and service because of market manipulation,” he added.
Meanwhile, anger continues to build over Mamdani doxxing NYC property owners who allegedly owe his “pied-a-terre” tax on alleged second homes.
“Real estate attorney Benjamin Williams said many property owners believe they have been wrongly targeted as the city works to identify luxury second homes,” according to local station WABC.
Earlier in the week, Mamdani released a list of 960,000 New York City property owners who might owe the tax, which was supposed to only target owners of properties worth $5 million or more.
But according to former Clinton adviser Mark Penn, there are only about a million residential tax lots in the city, meaning almost every property owner in NYC wound up on Mamdani’s hit list. The reality is that the NYC Department of Finance’s $5 million number was very, very misleading — and potentially wrong.
“Now, here is the interesting part — once you are on the list you have to prove you should not be taxed by showing you are a resident,” Penn wrote in a tweet. “Or by challenging the valuation. Good luck fighting the city bureaucrats on both of these counts. The individual litigation will be massive.”
