Conservative voters should wake up to what’s coming out of the New York mayoral race: hard-right investigator Peter Schweizer publicly warned on Life, Liberty & Levin that the Mamdani family is “joined at the hip” with Qatar’s royal circle, and that is not the sort of foreign entanglement New Yorkers should shrug off. Schweizer’s appearance isn’t idle speculation — it’s a red flag from a seasoned watchdog who has spent years following foreign money into American politics.
The specifics are ugly and unmistakable: a prominent Qatari royal, Sheikha Al‑Mayassa, has been amplifying Zohran Mamdani’s campaign on social media and has a well-documented history of cultural patronage that reaches into his family circle. This is not merely a flattering like or two; it’s active promotion from a member of a regime that has repeatedly been criticized for harboring extremist figures and for using soft power to shape narratives abroad.
Dig deeper and you find where the leash may be tied: Mira Nair, Mamdani’s mother and an acclaimed filmmaker, has long accepted patronage and co‑productions from Qatari institutions — ties that stretch back a decade and that critics say make the optics of Mamdani’s rise to power deeply troubling. Whether you love her art or not, taxpayers and voters have a right to know whether foreign money that bolsters cultural projects is also being funneled into political influence here at home.
Meanwhile, campaign finance records now being scrutinized show Mamdani’s campaign accepting thousands in contributions from overseas addresses, with reports alleging nearly $13,000 in potentially illegal foreign donations and at least one contribution traced to a Dubai-based relative. This isn’t theory; election law exists to keep foreign actors from buying influence in our cities, and any hint that those rules were skirted should be investigated immediately and transparently.
Schweizer and other conservative watchdogs also argue that a large share of Mamdani’s backers are not local New Yorkers, and they point to troubling patterns in his donor list and supporting networks that demand scrutiny rather than silence. The Government Accountability Institute’s track record of exposing foreign influence — rightly or wrongly controversial — is why his claims are getting airtime and why independent investigators should follow the money without partisan filters.
This isn’t about xenophobia; it’s about sovereignty and common sense. New Yorkers don’t want a mayor whose campaign is promoted by foreign royals or whose family’s cultural benefactors have geopolitical agendas at odds with American interests. If Mamdani is innocent of any direct wrongdoing, he should welcome a full audit and release his records; anything less looks like the same secrecy and special‑interest corruption conservatives have been fighting for years.
Patriots who love New York should demand answers and a full accounting before Election Day, not limp denials and media soft‑balls. Our city deserves a leader whose loyalties lie with its taxpayers and law‑abiding citizens, not with foreign princes or shadowy new money trying to buy influence through culture and campaign contributions.
