On November 5, the young, progressive, and Muslim Zohran Mamdani moved from being a virtually unknown politician to becoming the mayor of New York. Since then, the socialist Democrat has championed a campaign of solutions to the Big Apple’s high cost of living with free buses, universal childcare, affordable housing, and taxes on the wealthiest. These decisions have been harshly criticized by Donald Trump, who accuses him of “wanting to destroy New York”.
Now, the youngest mayor of the city since 1892 has returned to the headlines with a decision that breaks with a long tradition of his predecessors in office. In an interview with Hell Gate newspaper, Zohran Mamdani has stated that neither he nor his wife, the illustrator Rama Duwaji, will be present at this year’s prestigious Met Gala. He did, however, affirm that the institution for which he raises funds, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is “incredible” and also a “key part of the city”.
The event, organized each year by Vogue’s former editor, the powerful Anna Wintour, is held on the first Monday of May and is attended by some of the world’s most famous people. It happens that this year’s gala is sponsored by one of the targets of her policy of raising taxes on the rich, the billionaire Jeff Bezos. Zohran Mamdani justified his absence as a way to focus on “affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States accessible to everyone”.
In recent years, other New York mayors have striven to attend the charity gala as a show of support for one of New York’s oldest cultural institutions. Michael R. Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams have ascended the museum’s famous staircase alongside celebrities, models, athletes, fashion designers, and, increasingly often, technology billionaires.
Anna Wintour praises the mayor’s wife
This year’s event will mark the start of the museum’s spring fashion exhibition, Costume Art, which will open on May 10 and will explore the ties between fashion and the art world. The event and the exhibition are sponsored by the billionaire couple Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who will also serve as hosts of honor for the evening. Last year, the gala raised a record sum of more than 31 million dollars. In 2026 Beyoncé will be co-chair, alongside Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and the usual host, Anna Wintour.
Anna Wintour, at the Met Gala 2025.
Anna Wintour herself recently praised Rama Duwaji, the New York mayor’s wife, during a Vogue interview with Meryl Streep. “I have great admiration for the new First Lady of New York because she has a very relaxed style and wears a lot of vintage clothes. She is young and modern, and she is completely herself,” the legendary fashion editor said, who also expressed admiration for Michelle Obama.
At the same time, she once again stoked the flames of her war with the current occupants of the White House, insisting that Melania Trump “always looks like herself.” Wintour’s words, which ban Donald Trump from the Met Gala, revived attention to her editorial decisions during Melania Trump’s first tenure as First Lady, when Vogue put other political figures on the cover, but not her.
Zohran Mamdani defends his decision
Some media outlets in his country highlight Zohran Mamdani’s snub of Anna Wintour, but others agree that his presence could have seemed out of place at an event considered the playground of the rich and famous. With a socialist program focused on reducing costs for ordinary New Yorkers, Mamdani has made the rise in taxes on the rich a central element of his political brand. Nevertheless, there are precedents of liberal politicians who have used the gala as a way to highlight the issues they care about.
In 2021, progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attended the Met Gala in a white dress custom-made by Brother Vellies, with “tax the rich” written on the back. A year later, Eric Adams walked the red carpet in a tuxedo jacket bearing the words “end gun violence”. For Mamdani, however, his message of making New York more affordable for everyone seems to prevail over any desire to raise public awareness.
