JD Vance Takes Not-So-Subtle Shot at Zohran Mamdani in America 250 Speech

Vice President JD Vance seemed to take a not-so-subtle shot at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) for branding America a place where the “powerful” believe “only a select few are allowed freedom” during a speech honoring America’s 250th birthday on Saturday.

Vance delivered the speech in NYC with the Statue of Liberty behind him. At one point, the vice president took a moment to bash pessimistic critics of the USA who would rather complain about the country than celebrate it.

“You’ll hear a couple small but loud voices today speak obsessively not of our national greatness, but of our national imperfections,” Vance said. “They will speak of the powerless and the disposed. They will tell you America is just another country, where the weak struggle against the strong.”

Vance then asked the crowd to “reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens, and reject the two-dimensional view of your country.”

It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to believe Vance had Mamdani in mind. The democratic socialist mayor delivered a speech from behind George Washington’s desk a day earlier that many blasted for being way too critical of America, especially on the eve of the Fourth of July.

“The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal,” Mamdani said in his video speech. “America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit.”

Mamdani continued,  “How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal. At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Division is the oldest trick in politics, and the cheapest.”

Vance wasn’t the only one seemingly bothered by Mamdani’s remarks.

It was easy to find pundits and social media users complaining about it on X, including X/SpaceX/Tesla boss Elon Musk, who said he was in favor of denaturalizing and deporting Mamdani; the mayor became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018.

Here are some of those posts:

Mamdani has built nothing. He is a taker, never a maker.

, Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 3, 2026

Mamdani rewrites 250 years of history on America’s birthday, denigrating wealth and innovation and capitalism which has made America exceptional https://t.co/Y1d2LixDst

, Sara Eisen (@SaraEisen) July 4, 2026

This Country gave you and your family the opportunity of a lifetime and you dump all over it! We are the richest and freest country in the world and it can get even better, but not through Communism. Your experiment will fail and like the Gov already did, the US will bail NYC out https://t.co/i4cNLPNUII

, Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) July 4, 2026

Mamdani was born in Uganda and is now the mayor of the biggest city in America. If that’s not opportunity, possibility and (dare I say it?) exceptionalism, I don’t know what is.

, Caitlin Flanagan (@CaitlinPacific) July 4, 2026

Denaturalize and deport Zohran Mamdani https://t.co/GtsBYZaa2N

, Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) July 3, 2026

Mamdani illustrates the wisdom of our Founders’ decision that we could never have a foreign-born president. His father wrote a book praising a dictator, and defended suicide bombings. He wants to change America to make it open to foreign ideas like socialism and antisemitism. No. https://t.co/akDCmCWm6U

, Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) July 3, 2026

Mamdani is a filthy foreign communist, and he needs to be sent back. https://t.co/OzgAJLW10C

, Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 3, 2026

Everyone's clowning on Commie Mamdani for having Washington's desk backwards in this hostage video, but it's deliberate. It's meant to be this way: you are Washington, looking at the carpetbagger who came to your desk to tell you he hates your country and he's got demands. pic.twitter.com/s7sNx9Ny4Q

, Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) July 4, 2026

Mamdani is being positioned by many as the future face of the Democratic Party. If The future face of the Dems is an immigrant who does not like America, and can only openly criticize the country, the Dems are in a world of trouble.

, Corey Walker (@CoreyWriting) July 3, 2026

Even Mamdani’s Independence Day comments insinuate that he hates everything about America. The main premise of his comments were that everything in America can change.

Someone get this man out of office. What a joke. pic.twitter.com/wA0BhRHAqs

, Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) July 4, 2026

Mamdani has been here for less than a decade, has built and done nothing, and is already telling us what America is and how to run our country

He is an extraordinarily arrogant, ignorant immigrant who needs to leave https://t.co/kLzauCH4GL

, Kevin Bass (@kevinnbass) July 4, 2026

You get the idea.

Watch Vance above, via MS NOW.

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