The New York City Police Department has pushed back on claims from Mayor Zohran Mamdani that his wife is set to receive a dedicated police escort during an upcoming trip to Syria.
Mamdani had said NYPD officials advised that Rama Duwaji should travel with taxpayer-funded police protection while making the overseas journey.
Duwaji, 29, is expected to travel next month to Syria and Lebanon, even though the US State Department currently warns Americans not to visit either country.
But the NYPD has now directly contradicted City Hall’s account, saying the mayor’s wife — who is a private citizen — will not be accompanied by department personnel for the trip.
“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with Level 4 travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,” an NYPD spokesperson told the New York Post.
“This is not an investigative trip, and therefore NYPD personnel will not be traveling there for it,” the spokesperson added.
Duwaji, who is Syrian-American and serves as New York City’s first lady, plans to visit relatives during the Middle East trip, the mayor’s office confirmed in a statement earlier this week.
A source familiar with the matter told the Post that Duwaji had asked for security during her travels, after which the mayor’s office released a statement saying a police escort had been arranged.
Rama Duwaji, wife of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, will jet off to Syria and Lebanon next month without taxpayer funded security detail after the NYPD shut down the mayors alleged request (Duwaji pictured at a fashion in New York City in February)
The 29-year-old is traveling to visit family, and is stopping in Syria and Lebanon despite US State Department warning against travel to either country (Mamdani and Duwaji pictured smiling after his inauguration)
The statement said: ‘Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon.’
However, after the NYPD’s embarrassing rejection, Mamdani has since backpedaled, placing the blame on a miscommunication by one of his staffers.
‘There was a miscommunication. She has not yet taken that trip, and when she takes that trip it will be without any NYPD detail,’ Mamdani told PIX11.
The controversy comes after Mamdani previously insisted that his wife was above public scrutiny as she is a ‘private citizen.’
The mayor made the comments after Duwaji was slammed for apparently liking a celebratory Instagram post the day after the October 7 attacks.
Jewish Insider first reported the posts, which appeared to show that she had liked an image celebrating the Hamas attack.
The post, made by left-wing group The Slow Factory, included images of groups of people posing after seizing an Israel Defense Forces vehicle, with ‘Free Palestine’ scrawled across it.
Another image read: ‘Breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation,’ followed by the date.
It comes after Duwaji left the country over the Fourth of July weekend while the rest of the US celebrated America’s 250th birthday
‘The NYPD does not send officers to countries with Level 4 travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,’ an NYPD spokesperson told the New York Post
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The image showed a bulldozer used to breach the border into Israel on the day nearly 1,200 people were killed.
When questioned by a reporter about the posts, Mayor Mamdani said: ‘My wife is the love of my life, and she is also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.’
Despite Mamdani’s insistence, Duwaji has recently posed for a cover feature in The Cut, the flagship style and culture magazine published by New York magazine.
Duwaji’s upcoming trip is her latest jaunt and comes after she left the country over the Fourth of July weekend while the rest of the US celebrated Independence Day.
Duwaji was spotted departing Newark, New Jersey, with the Post reporting that she spent July 4 at an Islamic ‘spiritual wellness’ retreat in Spain.
The six-day event, dubbed ‘Plants of the Quran,’ cost attendees $3,400 to take part in.
She also co-hosted a sold-out spiritual retreat on the French island of Corsica after her trip to Spain.
The event, titled ‘Mary in the Quran,’ examined the life and legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Quran.
The Daily Mail has contacted Mamdani’s office and the NYPD for comment.
