Billionaire investor Bill Ackman recently extended a congratulatory message to New York City’s Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, following an unsuccessful $2 million campaign aimed at preventing Mamdani’s election. Ackman, who leads the hedge fund Pershing Square in New York City, has been a vocal opponent of Mamdani, especially criticizing his stance on Israel through various social media platforms. According to public records, Ackman contributed more than $2 million to groups opposing Mamdani throughout the election season.

Despite his efforts, Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, emerged victorious on Tuesday night. In a show of sportsmanship, Ackman took to social media to congratulate the newly elected mayor. “@ZohranKMamdani, congrats on the win. Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do,” Ackman wrote on X. This came just hours after Ackman had made multiple appeals, urging voters to back former governor Andrew Cuomo and sharing posts that criticized Mamdani’s past comments on defunding the NYPD and his pro-Palestine stance.

Ackman has been a dedicated advocate for Jewish Americans, particularly following the tragic Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which claimed over 1,200 lives. A recent Daily Mail survey revealed that even among Mamdani’s supporters, there is concern about an increase in antisemitism under his leadership. Mamdani, who is Muslim, has been a prominent critic of Israel within the Democratic Party and has even pledged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York during his term as mayor.

That has spooked many Jewish people still distraught from Hamas’s horrific October 2023 attack, with NYC home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities. Mamdani once joked that Ackman, who is a MAGA supporter, spent more money trying to defeat him then the mayor-elect would even tax him. ‘He’s spending more money against me than I would even tax him. Every day it’s like a million dollars, a million dollars. I don’t even want that much,’ he said on the Flagrant podcast last month.

Ackman further explained his congratulatory post Wednesday afternoon insisting that he wishes to work with the future mayor because he cares about NYC. ‘Some have been surprised by my conciliatory post to Mamdani. Mamdani won a decisive election. He is going to be our mayor for the next four years. I care enormously about New York City which has been very good to me and my family since we emigrated to NYC in the 1890s,’ he said. ‘While I did not support Mamdani for mayor and have concerns about the unintended and negative consequences of his policies, I want to do everything I can to help NYC regardless of who are mayor is.’

Mamdani has promised several things, including freezing rent, free bus fares and tax hikes on the rich, which has some New Yorkers looking to flee the state. Before election day, a Daily Mail poll found that at least 765,000 New Yorkers would ‘definitely’ leave the city, and a whopping 2.12 million residents would ‘consider’ moving if Mamdani won. His win, which saw him take over 50 percent of the vote, means he will become the city’s first Muslim mayor.

During his acceptance speech, he told supporters: ‘I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.’ The 34-year-old directly addressed the president, saying: ‘Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up!’ Relatively unknown as a state assemblymember when the race for City Hall started, he gained momentum by running a campaign focused on affordability. His campaign pushed populist ideas like free public buses, rent freezes for rent-stabilized apartments, and grocery stores that would be owned by the city.

Trump previously branded Mamdani a ‘communist’ and threatened to cut off federal funding to the city if he were to win the race. ‘If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!’ Trump said a New York under Mamdani would be a ‘complete and total economic and social disaster,’ claiming that the socialist’s principles ‘have been tested for over a thousand years and they have never once been successful.’