Zohran Mamdani hasn’t spent one official day in office yet as mayor of New York City, and he is already demonstrating core qualities of left-wing, communist, socialist government leaders: he’s asking for an influx of money to fund his political ambitions. The mayor-elect, who ran an Orwellian-style socialist campaign filled with big promises of easier lives. He promised his supporters a new era of government that they could trust, one that would implement new reforms to usher in an era of affordability — and then he asked other people to give him money. 

In a video posted to his social media account, Mamdani asked for people to contribute as he builds his team to run a socialist government in the city, which was once the preeminent example of American capitalism.