JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, as New York entered a new year, Zohran Mamdani descended underground.

While fireworks cracked above the city, Mamdani raised his right hand beneath the vaulted arches of the long-abandoned City Hall subway station, a ghost of the original New York transit system, sealed off for decades and rarely seen by the public.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, administers the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, as his wife Rama Duwaji looks on. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

There, at the stroke of 2026, Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of America’s largest city.

The setting was deliberate. The disused station, with its tiled ceilings and echoing platforms, was chosen, his team said, to reflect a commitment to the working people who keep New York moving.

There were no crowds, no grand speeches, just a small group of family and allies.

Mamdani pictured arriving with his wife Rama Duwaji as his parents Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani look on. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

“This is truly the honour and privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said, standing beneath a sign still marked City Hall.

The oath was administered by New York attorney general Letitia James, a political ally and a long-time antagonist of President Donald Trump.

Mamdani placed his hand on several Qurans, including two from his family and one once owned by Black Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Schomburg, adding another layer of symbolism to a moment already heavy with it.

At 34, Mamdani is not just New York’s first Muslim mayor, but also its youngest in generations, its first of South Asian descent, and its first to be born in Africa.

Born in Kampala to filmmaker Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani, he moved to New York aged seven and grew up in the shadow of 9/11, a backdrop that has shaped both his politics and his public identity.

The quiet midnight ceremony marked the legal start of a four-year term that promises disruption.

Mamdani swept into office on a democratic socialist platform centred on affordability, pledging rent freezes, free buses and universal childcare in a city where cost-of-living pressures have become dire.

More than two million people voted, handing him a decisive victory and propelling a once little-known state assemblyman into one of the most scrutinised jobs in American politics.

Later toiday, Mamdani is scheduled to take part in a larger, ceremonial inauguration with speeches from left-wing allies Senator Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Supporters pictured outside City hall ahead of the event. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Around 4,000 ticketed guests are expected to attend the event outside City Hall.

Mamdani’s team has also organised a block party that it says will enable tens of thousands of people to watch the ceremony at streetside viewing areas along Broadway.

Mamdani now inherits a city emerging from the pandemic years, with crime down and tourism rebounding, but rents still climbing and anxieties high.

Above all looms Donald Trump. The Republican president has previously threatened to cut federal funding to New York under Mamdani, calling him a “communist lunatic”, while Mamdani has described Trump as a fascist.

Mamdani visited Trump at the White House in November. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Yet a surprisingly cordial White House meeting in November hinted at a more complicated relationship to come.