Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg led King Charles III on his tour of the city’s Sept. 11 terrorist attack memorial grounds as current Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the event in the background.
Mamdani, a socialist, has distanced himself from the British monarch over the mayor’s own anti-imperialist views, bashing the monarchy for its treatment of its colonists and the Irish in recent weeks. Charles’s trip to the Big Apple had tensions running high as the city guessed whether the two leaders with vastly different ideologies would meet in person, and they did.
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Mamdani met Charles in a procession line at the 9/11 memorial as Bloomberg led the king. Despite his digs at the king, Mamdani smiled ear to ear as he shook the monarch’s hand and spoke with him for a brief moment.
The cheery greeting came hours after Mamdani chided the king at an earlier, unrelated event as he referenced a diamond of the British crown jewels that was mined in and taken from India.
“If I was to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Kohinoor diamond,” Mamdani, who is himself of Indian descent, said.
Mamdani addressed whether he would meet the King earlier this week in a Monday statement to reporters.
“I will be attending the wreath-laying … to pay tribute to the more than 3,000 who were killed in the horrific terror attacks of Sept. 11,” Mamdani said. “And that will be the extent of my meeting with the king and with others who are present.”
It was not immediately clear what Mamdani and the King spoke about during their brief interaction on Wednesday.
Bloomberg led Charles and Queen Camilla on their tour of the grounds, rather than Mamdani. Bloomberg did not become mayor of New York City until January 2002, as former Mayor Rudy Giuliani led the city through the terrorist attacks.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to City Hall about why Bloomberg led the tour instead of Mamdani.
MAMDANI AND KING CHARLES TO ATTEND 9/11 CEREMONY IN NEW YORK CITY: WHAT TO KNOW
The mayor’s public schedule had Mamdani scheduled to attend the Family Justice Center for a Denim Day event at 2 p.m., one hour after the 9/11 wreath-laying ceremony began. Denim Day brings awareness to victims of sexual assault.
After his stint in New York City, Charles will head to Virginia for an America 250 celebration.
