New York City landlords are firing back at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s director of Tenant Protection after comments calling property ownership “white supremacist.”
Cea Weaver, a high-ranking operative within the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has faced repeated criticism for past social media posts attacking homeownership.
“The reality is that for centuries, we have really treated property as an individualized good and not as a collective good,” Weaver said in one video from 2021. She added that the transition to “shared equity” would target “white families” and “some POC (people of color) families who are homeowners.”
In a social media post from 2019, she said “homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy,” The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marxism-in-the-metropolis-nycs-new-tenant-czar-has-targeted-white-homeowners-private-property">reported</a>.
In response to Weaver’s past comments, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/nyc-landlords-fire-back-racist-mamdani-aides-claim-ties-homeownership-white-supremacy">told</a> Fox News: “Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is on high alert as to the radical agenda promised by Mayor Mamdani, much of which is at odds with our federal Constitutional and civil rights norms.”
Now, NYC landlords are accusing Weaver of racism for ignoring immigrant property owners in the city.
“I think that the true socialist views toward housing and taking housing away from people like myself is the racist element in this,” Jan Lee, a third-generation Chinatown property owner and board member of the Small Property Owners of New York (SPONY), told Fox News Digital. “I think when you start to lump all of us together and say that we’re all the bad thing that&#8217;s keeping people out of housing, that’s racist. We’re right out of the gate in this administration, starting off with extreme hostility for property owners.”
Ann Korchak, board president of SPONY, called Weaver’s comments “insulting.”
“To say that it’s racist to own property is an insult to every single immigrant who ever came here,” Korchak said.
Weaver would be “blown away by the diversity” of NYC property owners, Korchak said.
“New York has a rich tradition of immigrants kind of reaching the American dream through property ownership,” Korchak said. “So many of our members and others who don’t even know that we exist came to America because they didn’t have rights in wherever they came from.”
Weaver recently led the first of five planned “Rental Ripoff Hearings” intended to “uncover policy recommendations that will more effectively and systematically protect tenants in their homes,” The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-went-to-zohran-mamdanis-first-rental-ripoff-hearing-everyone-was-mad">reported</a>.
At the meeting, Weaver said the mayor’s office would use the feedback collected at the Rental Ripoff hearings to inform housing policy going forward.
Private landlords said the hearings are too one-sided.
“They should pull from a combination of tenants, landlords, financiers, developers, and economists,” New York real estate broker Adam Frisch told The Daily Wire. “Everybody looks at the situation with their own biases, and it’s the role of the mayor to sit down with tenants and landlords and say I know you’re both unhappy. Let’s see what we can do.”

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Interview

NYC Landlords Blast Mamdani Official Who Calls Property Ownership ‘Weapon Of White Supremacy’

New York

New York City

Property Rights

Racism

U.S.

Zohran Mamdani

Video has surfaced showing Zohran Mamdani, the socialist Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, calling for the &#8220;abolition of private property&#8221; during a previous campaign.
In a clip that <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/17/us-news/republican-party-slams-zohran-mamdanis-support-for-abolition-of-private-property/">made</a> the rounds on social media Thursday, Mamdani said, &#8220;Every single person should have housing.&#8221;
&#8220;The system has hundreds of thousands of people unhoused, right? For what?&#8221; Mamdani said in the clip, which was from a 2020 podcast interview when he was a Democratic nominee for the New York State Assembly, a race he went on to win.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Zohran Mamdani says he&#39;d be in favor of the &quot;abolition of private property&quot; <a href="https://t.co/WRs6JEG5tv">pic.twitter.com/WRs6JEG5tv</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1945845567336153388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;If there was any system that could guarantee each person housing, whether you call it the abolition of private property or you call it a statewide housing guarantee, it is preferable to what is going on right now,&#8221; Mamdani said.
&#8220;People try and play, like, gotcha games about these kinds of things, and it&#8217;s like look, I care more about whether somebody has a home,&#8221; he added.
The New York state assemblyman representing parts of Queens won the Democratic primary last month in an upset that threw the New York City mayor’s race into chaos.
Mamdani has described himself as a democratic socialist and has proposed controversial and expensive policies, including government-run grocery stores, free buses, free childcare, a rent freeze for more than two million New Yorkers living in rent-subsidized housing, and deploying mental health professionals rather than police in crises. He wants to raise both income and corporate taxes.
In another resurfaced clip, Mamdani talked about &#8220;seizing the means of production,&#8221; a key Marxist concept.
&#8220;We have to continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K7HDuoJ0MQ">said</a> in 2021 during a live-streamed conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is not terrible AI, it&#39;s a real message from the current frontrunner for NYC Mayor to his socialist comrades.
&quot;The end goal of seizing the means of production.&quot;
I can&#39;t believe this is actually happening. <a href="https://t.co/KNxQV2QCX7">pic.twitter.com/KNxQV2QCX7</a>
&mdash; MAZE (@mazemoore) <a href="https://twitter.com/mazemoore/status/1939507833571246584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;There are also other issues that we firmly believe in &#8230; whether it&#8217;s the end goal of seizing the means of production where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment,&#8221; he said.
He posted something similar on social media in 2020.
“If we want everyone to be full participants in the economy, we need worker ownership of the means of production,” Mamdani <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1333943646777913346" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X.
During the Young Democratic Socialists conference, Mamdani also referenced transgender ideology.
&#8220;The ramifications of victory here is the difference between life and death for so many of our brothers, sisters, and family beyond the binary and across this borough of Queens,&#8221; Mamdani said.
Current Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Andrew Cuomo are both Democrats running as independents, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa is running against all of them.
Mamdani is currently statistically tied with Cuomo and Sliwa, according to a HarrisX <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harrisx-nyc-poll-tight-race-emerges-in-nyc-mayoral-general-election-but-cuomo-stronger-than-adams-against-mamdani-302506087.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> this week. Mamdani leads at 26%, with Cuomo at 23% and Sliwa at 22%, all within the margin of error. Adams trails at 13%, while 15% of voters remain undecided, according to the poll.

NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Campaigns In Harlem

Dem Socialist Mamdani Called For ‘Abolition Of Private Property’

Socialist Mamdani Called For 'Abolition Of Private Property' 

Elections

Mayor

Politics

Professional squatters who set up shop in celebrity chef <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Gordon Ramsay</a>’s $16.1 million York &amp; Albany gastropub were served <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/property-rights">eviction papers</a>, which prompted some of them to leave but others to ignore the directive and stay.
The group Camden Arts Cafe, who call themselves an “autonomous cafe in the heart of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-kingdom">Camden</a>,” replied to the papers by expressing disappointment about the situation. 
“We are sad to announce Camden art collective have left the building after being served papers yesterday,” they wrote on Instagram, per <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/17/world-news/gordon-ramsay-london-squatters-kicked-out-after-being-served-some-left-behind/">The New York Post</a>. “We wish those left in the building the best of luck in their endeavors. We hope to be a part of the community again soon.”
The group had previously defended setting up in the shuttered restaurant, saying they had a right to occupy the venue because it was not a residential building and was therefore not included under 2012 legislation which protected private residences from squatters in the U.K., per <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gordon-ramsay-squat-camden-inside-b2528900.html">The Independent</a>. 
Each of the squatters referred to themselves as “Gordon” to protect their identities. They told the outlet they were occupying the space as a form of protest for so-called “victims of gentrification” and the U.K.’s planned high-speed railway, H2S, which has an estimated completion date between 2029 and 2033.
“We aim to open our doors regularly to anyone and everyone, particularly the people of Camden who have been victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2,” the group said in a previous social media post.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1713449380053000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0e-HYFsZYxlnnLDshKhFqj">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
The group said they targeted Ramsay’s restaurant in an effort to draw attention to wealth inequality. The US Sun reported that the pub was temporarily closed while the Food Network star was finalizing a new lease. During the interim, the professional squatters circumvented security measures and moved themselves in.  
“The York and Albany is an iconic building in Camden since its opening in the 1820s; it has withstood wars and bombs, and despite what the media says, it will withstand the potentially short but hopefully long stay we squatters have here,” they wrote.
“At a time when Camden market has been bought out by a billionaire and many longstanding local businesses are being evicted from their units, it’s even more important that we all band together in all the forms of resistance that we know and can.”

Restaurant squatting

Professional Squatters Kicked Out Of Gordon Ramsay’s $16M London Restaurant

Professional Squatters Kicked Out Of Gordon Ramsay's $16M London Restaurant

Celebrities

London

U.K.

World

Jon Stewart, who once pronounced, “The thing about a moral compass is you take it out and check it from time to time. You don&#8217;t have to wait for history to show you you&#8217;re headed in the wrong direction,” and also mocked Donald Trump over accusations that he inflated the value of his real estate, has been blasted after news broke that he allegedly overvalued his own New York City penthouse by an enormous 829%.
Stewart, 61, said on “The Daily Show” on Monday night, “The attorney general of New York knew that Trump’s property values were inflated because when it came time to pay taxes, Trump undervalued the very same properties. It was all part of a very specific real estate practice known as lying.”
But then it was reported that Stewart allegedly overvalued his New York City penthouse, which he sold in 2014 for <a href="https://nypost.com/2014/11/06/jon-stewart-sells-his-tribeca-duplex-for-17-5m/">$17.5 million</a>.
According to 2013-2014 assessor records obtained by <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/03/27/real-estate/jon-stewart-found-to-have-overvalued-his-nyc-home-by-829/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=nypost" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Post</a>, Stewart&#8217;s property had an estimated market value of only $1.8 million, and &#8220;the actual assessor valuation was even lower, at $847,174,&#8221; according to the outlet.
The Post added, “Records also show that Stewart paid significantly lower property taxes, which were calculated based on that assessor valuation price — precisely what he called Trump out for doing in his<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDMinX6t1Zk"> Monday monologue.</a>”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Did <a href="https://twitter.com/jonstewart?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jonstewart</a> commit fraud when he sold his penthouse for $17.5M?
NY listed its market value at $1.8M an AV at around 800k
Who did he He defraud??
I am SHOCKED
SHOCKED <a href="https://t.co/9okis96VQP">pic.twitter.com/9okis96VQP</a>
&mdash; Tim Pool (@Timcast) <a href="https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1772673524714348703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Post also noted that the New York assessor valuation on Stewart’s penthouse was the same citation method and metric that was utilized by New York Attorney General Letitia James to assess Trump’s private and personal properties.
Stewart <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/stewart-trump-fraud-trial-victimless-b2518916.html">vented some more</a> on Monday night, saying:
<blockquote>
I don’t know if you know this, but most people just can’t commit fraud and expect to face no repercussions, even if everyone’s doing it. &#8230; Try getting a car loan by saying you have 10 times as much money as you really do. Or claim 20 dependents when you have no children. Or say you make slightly less money to qualify for food assistance. I will guarantee you, there are not just financial consequences for those lies, but criminal ones &#8230;
But don’t tell that to the investment community, because in their minds, in pursuit of profit, there is no rule that cannot be bent, there is no principle that cannot be undercut, as long as you and your f***ing friends make money.
</blockquote>

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart Mocks Trump Over Accusations He Inflated Property Value. Guess Who Allegedly Did The Same Thing By 829%?

Donald Trump

Fraud

One of the most important ideas in the Bill of Rights is that your private property belongs to you.
It wasn&#8217;t exactly a novel concept, but just in case there was any doubt, the Bill of Rights spelled it out: No one can seize your property without due process. And if you take a look at the major court cases in this area over the years, you&#8217;ll find that you have the strongest privacy interests in your home, which makes sense. There are all kinds of exceptions that police can use to search your car, or your locker at work, for example. But for your home, there aren&#8217;t many exceptions. Your home is your castle, as the saying goes. That&#8217;s been true since the common law was created. 
But it&#8217;s not true anymore. It&#8217;s not even remotely true, in fact. 
It turns out that, when you flood the United States with a limitless supply of illegal migrants, while at the same time shipping millions of jobs overseas, then housing becomes a very scarce commodity. Squatters, mostly out of desperation, pop up in every home they can find — even homes that haven&#8217;t been abandoned. And then, when homeowners try to enforce their rights, and kick these criminals out of the property they paid for, they&#8217;re finding out that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution has effectively been suspended. 
As we discussed briefly yesterday, squatters — home invaders — now have more rights than homeowners. The government will assist them in seizing your property. The police, universally, will take the side of the criminal home invader, and kick the homeowner to the curb. Then, nonprofits and law firms rush in to represent the squatter in legal proceedings, should they become necessary. And then, somehow, courts will often still rule in favor of the squatter. 
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1329-squatters-can-now-come-in-and-steal-your-home-with-no-consequences-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
We don&#8217;t have to speculate about any of this. It&#8217;s all well-documented at this point. No reasonable person can dispute it. I&#8217;ll start with an example that&#8217;s gotten a lot of attention recently. 
Watch as a 47-year-old woman in Queens, New York, is dragged away from her own home — in handcuffs — because someone claims to have a lease for her property. This guy can&#8217;t show the lease to anyone, including the police and the media. But because he claims he&#8217;s been living there for around a month, they arrest the woman:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 New York" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VjB_yF4CJPE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;Unlawful eviction&#8221; is what they call it when you call the police because there&#8217;s a home invader in your home. That&#8217;s what you get if you&#8217;re not willing to wait two years (or more) for New York&#8217;s completely overloaded housing court to review your case. And by the way, even once New York&#8217;s housing court does review the case, there&#8217;s no guarantee they&#8217;ll side with the homeowner. This is a city that has outlawed the right of self-defense, after all. Once that&#8217;s gone, good luck getting them to enforce any of your other rights.
This is the norm in Left-wing jurisdictions now. It&#8217;s not just that the police don&#8217;t care about squatters with zero documentation whatsoever. It&#8217;s also the fact that the courts don&#8217;t enforce the law, even when you bring flagrant crimes like this to their attention. In Washington state, a judge just <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/squatter-granted-restraining-order-against-landlord-by-washington-state-judge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">granted</a> a restraining order against a landlord whose tenant hasn&#8217;t been paying rent for years. The landlord organized a protest to bring attention to the situation, and the judge shut it down. This is a tenant who&#8217;s apparently purchased two cars while refusing to pay rent. And in Washington state, the courts side with him.
But this is not just a problem in New York City and Washington State. It&#8217;s happening all over the United States. 
Consider this recent episode in Atlanta, for example. This is from just four months ago. A woman listed her home for sale — not for rent. Then complete strangers moved in and changed the locks. In response, the police did absolutely nothing. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Atlanta" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QTgLMnkTpaA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
It&#8217;s beyond parody. So the police do eventually show up. But it&#8217;s not to evict the home invaders who are stealing this home. It&#8217;s because they have their own &#8220;parallel investigation&#8221; for some other crimes that one of the squatters — a sex offender — committed in the past. So the cops take one man away in custody. But they allow the other squatter to stay on the property. The cops say the homeowner can ask for her to leave, but &#8220;it might not pan out.&#8221; That&#8217;s what law enforcement means now. You can ask people to stop breaking the law, but it might not pan out.
It needs to be said that these are not close cases. It&#8217;s true that, if it&#8217;s a confusing situation — say, a tenant appears to have legitimate lease documentation — then it&#8217;s probably best that the cops don&#8217;t arrest the tenant. But these are not difficult situations like that. When sex offenders start living in your house, without any valid documentation, the police should remove them. There shouldn&#8217;t be any question about it.
But apparently that isn&#8217;t happening anywhere. A similar scene played out seven months ago in Chicago. This time, a homeowner tries to rent out the property, and squatters show up. But once again, the police don&#8217;t do anything:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 Chicago" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TmQjTkOXTQM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I could spend all day, going from city to city, showing you footage like this. There&#8217;s footage from rural jurisdictions as well that I could show you. It&#8217;s happening all over. These kinds of home invasions are so common that one handyman has opened up a business advising homeowners how to regain access to their own homes, when squatters show up. Basically the idea is that you need to generate your own lease, so that you can show it to the police officers, who are now trained to respect your squatter&#8217;s rights over your rights in your own home. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 Handyman" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/alhkZ1MZqkw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It&#8217;s hard to think of a more humiliating exercise than this. You own a property, and to access it, and to get the police to enforce the law, you need to draw up some fake lease for them. And this idea actually works, by the way. We know that because several years ago, the journalist Charlie LeDuff tried it in Michigan. He out-squatted the squatters. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 9 years ago" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/85AgkLcc094?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;Are you stealing power?&#8221; Charlie asks. &#8220;I&#8217;m blessed,&#8221; responds the squatter. At least the woman has a sense of humor.
What&#8217;s funny is that, in this situation, unlike all the other ones, the police actually do take the original squatter to jail. This is the only time they&#8217;ll take action to protect your property. You have to hire a new squatter to kick out the old one. I guess the idea is that the most recent squatter gets dibbs. 
This is a mockery of the idea of private property rights, obviously, and there&#8217;s a reason it&#8217;s happening. It&#8217;s the same reason you see so much mockery of religion. It&#8217;s the same reason BLM goes after the family unit. It&#8217;s why the corporate media pushes transgenderism. Private property rights — like religion and the family unit — is a bulwark against total state control of our lives. As long as we have private property, the state can&#8217;t control us — at least not as easily. 
Without private property, we&#8217;re just renters. And renters can be evicted at will. You&#8217;ll own nothing and be happy.
The Biden administration has done everything it can to normalize the destruction of private property rights. The administration fought to extend the COVID-era eviction moratorium as long as they could — long past the time that there was any plausible argument that ending evictions would somehow &#8220;stop the spread.&#8221; That led, effectively, to the nationalization of private property in this country. Landlords lost the right to evict squatters paying no rent, even when they owned the property outright. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 Burbank CA" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/md9FRcSgHBg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The anchor says it&#8217;s a &#8220;loophole.&#8221; But it&#8217;s the opposite of a loophole, the policy was working as intended. The eviction moratorium had nothing to do with a virus. It was intended to do something that&#8217;s never happened in this country since the Civil War, which is the wide-scale suspension of private property rights.
Once you pull off something as unconstitutional as seizing people&#8217;s homes in a time of &#8220;emergency&#8221; (as the Biden administration defined it), then it becomes much easier to seize people&#8217;s homes at any point in the future. And that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re seeing now.
That means more homes for the millions of illegal aliens who are entering this country.
It means more humiliation and destruction for American citizens.
And it means we&#8217;re getting closer to some homeowner somewhere snapping and deciding to take back his property, by force. At this point, you have to imagine that&#8217;s exactly what the people running this country want to happen.

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Property Rights

NYC Landlords Blast Mamdani Official Who Calls Property Ownership ‘Weapon Of White Supremacy’

Dem Socialist Mamdani Called For ‘Abolition Of Private Property’

Professional Squatters Kicked Out Of Gordon Ramsay’s $16M London Restaurant

Jon Stewart Mocks Trump Over Accusations He Inflated Property Value. Guess Who Allegedly Did The Same Thing By 829%?

Squatters Can Now Come In And Steal Your Home With No Consequences