Anyone who remembers Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to the top of American politics knows that he worked overtime trying to distance himself from charges of secret socialist loyalties. In 2026, though, Obama is happy to join forces with New York City’s socialist Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

The two men made a joint appearance at a Bronx daycare this weekend, smiling and singing to preschoolers in promotion of the Mayor’s universal childcare programme. “This is what we need — making an investment in these amazing kids,” Obama said of the initiative during the event.

Mamdani reciprocated the warmth, apparently happy to have Obama’s support. On paper, of course, it seems obvious a young mayor would crave the stamp of approval from a former president. But Mamdani’s path to political stardom wound straight through the American Left’s anti-Obama fever swamps. He’s a creature of the internecine backlash to Obama.

As a college student in 2013, Mamdani tweeted “Hasn’t Obama shown that the lesser evil is still pretty damn evil?” and that he couldn’t “trust” quotes from the then-President “since his continued lying in the face of Snowden’s #NSA revelations”. This is precisely how the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is the most high-profile success story, gained steam over the last decade. The point of the organisation was to oppose the Democratic Party’s entrenched leadership class. Now, just four months into his term, Mamdani is either projecting a total victory over Obama or Obama is claiming victory over Mamdani. The latter is preposterous, at least as of today.

In his battles against Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Obama sought to explain away affiliations with Leftist radicals including Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. Virtually the entire debate over “Obamacare” centred on whether the president was ushering America into an age of socialism.

Obama actually called the New York Times after a 2009 interview to chide the journalist responsible for daring to ask if he was a socialist. “It was hard for me to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question,” he reportedly said. “I think that it’s important just to note when you start hearing folks throw these words around that we’ve actually been operating in a way that is entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word socialist around can’t say the same.”

When Leftist millennials revolted via the Occupy Wall Street movement, Obama found himself in another tricky moment as “income inequality” became a feature of political discourse. One year after winning re-election in 2012, he told business leaders on a call: “People call me a socialist sometimes. But, no, you’ve got to meet real socialists. You’ll have a sense of what a socialist is. I’m talking about lowering the corporate tax rate. My healthcare reform is based on the private marketplace. The stock market is looking pretty good last time I checked.”

Is Obama now embracing Mamdani and universal childcare, at least on a local basis, to exert centrist power and control over the budding political force? It’s more likely that he is genuinely impressed by the New York City Mayor and would like to maintain his own influence over the Democratic Party.

Ahead of Mamdani’s election last autumn, top Democrats furiously debated whether to endorse the charismatic leading candidate. What ultimately came from figures such as Kamala Harris and Hakeem Jeffries was tepid to say the least. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, on the other hand, has decided to basically let Mamdani lead the way — and that’s coming from a politician more moderate than Obama.

Democrats’ opinion of socialism is up 16 points since 2010, the early days of Obama’s presidency, with a full 66% majority holding a positive view of the ideology as of last autumn. Capitalism, meanwhile, is down by 9 points. It’s clear Obama is the one kissing Mamdani’s ring. If anything, a close association with the former president could be a liability in the future for the New York City Mayor. As Democrats fight over whether the party should tack further Left or move to the centre, Obama evidently has a direction in mind.

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Emily Jashinsky is UnHerd‘s Washington correspondent.

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