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As only an obstreperous, diverse, nervy, and progressive city with heart can pull off, New York this week repeatedly showed Americans how to stand up to bullies and corruption, stand by vulnerable Americans, and withstand efforts to rob us of communal joy.
The sight of New Yorkers lining the streets and packed together in Madison Square Garden, unified in booing Donald Trump, who insisted on disrupting a city-wide celebration of the Knicks, warmed our hearts at The Contrarian. We captured some of the feel-good scenes in a short video:
New Yorkers are well practiced in the art of snubbing an unwanted intruder at an iconic city sports extravaganza. In what now looks like a test run, the U.S. Tennis Open crowd last year lobbed robust boos at Trump his home borough of Queens.
Trump’s security that disrupted fan attendance and the official watch party only intensified New Yorkers’ longstanding loathing of him. The Athletic reported:
The first sitting U.S. president to attend a finals game, Trump, 79, of New York, was booed louder than the San Antonio Spurs. He was shown long enough for the fans lustily booing him to see him smirk.…
The massive amount of extra security needed for a president to sit indoors with 20,000 hoops fans became an inconvenience for the city and a defining storyline going into the game — with extraordinarily long lines to get in, the no-bag policy and canceled watch parties outside of the Garden.
New Yorkers refused to let Trump ruin their fun. They launched spontaneous watch parties throughout the city. In addition, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Monday via social media: “The @nyknicks are home and our city is ready to show out. We’re hosting a free watch party for 5,000 New Yorkers tonight in Bryant Park.” Some 7,000 fans showed up (with a few incidents of unfortunate, but minor, violence).
Beyond the NBA, Mamdani continued his campaign to fight sports ticket gouging, part of his battle for an affordable city and in vivid contrast to Trump’s tough-luck-to-working-stiffs reaction to exorbitant MSG ticket prices.
Well before attention shifted to the Knicks, Mamdani began to focus last year on FIFA, widely reviled as among the greediest and most corrupt sports organizations (among stiff competition!).
In that spirit, Mamdani unveiled a deal exclusively for New Yorkers to buy 1,000 World Cup tickets at $50 each (1/100th the cost of many tickets), which even included a free bus ride to MetLife stadium in New Jersey. To underscore his affordability message, Mamdani staged his kickoff announcement “in Little Senegal, surrounded by Harlem residents, African community leaders and elected officials wearing jerseys representing tournament nations with deep roots in New York City,” his press release stated. Mamdani said: “A World Cup is coming to our backyard, and we want to ensure working-class New Yorkers have the opportunity to be part of it.” He touted his successful sit-down with the Host Committee to ensure that “this tournament belongs to the people who make this city what it is.”
Mamdani later shared his excitement with New Yorkers by releasing video clips of calls with ticket-lottery winners. Democrats should follow Mamdani’s example of skillfully displaying generosity to the 8.5 million neighbors whom he adores. Politicians need to remember that adept populist governance requires you sincerely like people, a foreign concept to Trump, who treats others as purely a means to his desired ends. (And, unlike Trump, Mamdani knows something about sports.)
New Yorkers outside of sports put their best foot forward in other venues, including Sunday night’s Tony Awards. The show was everything New York and Broadway aspire to be: irreverent, glitzy, creative, sophisticated, and fun. From Pink’s opening gala number to flag-waving fans joining in the tribute to Cats: The Jellicle Ball, the show producers expertly replicated the thrill of experiencing live theater. (“Sometimes, singing, dancing, a lot of jokes, and a happy ending is really all you need,” observed Schmigadoon! winning producer Lorne Michaels. Exclamation marks help also!)
New Yorkers and the Broadway community especially have well-deserved reputations for sentimentality. The Tony winners sent many in the live and home audiences digging for tissues.
Shoshana Bean gave a lovely tribute to single moms. (“This is for the mamas. This is for the single mamas,” she proclaimed. “This is for my single mama. You are the wild heroes.”)
Ali Louis Bourzgui’s ode to diversity expertly skewered selfish, hate-filled MAGA elites. “The billionaires will never find happiness from their money, the colonizers will never find fulfillment from the land, the lives they steal, the fascists will never find meaning from their conformity, not in this lifetime or eternity,” he said. “This is dedicated to the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families that make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty.” Amen.
Playwright Bess Wohl’s win for “Liberation,” which also won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, may have been the high point. Her intimate, funny portrayal of a 1970’s Second Wave feminism consciousness-raising group (which included Wohl’s mother, a Ms. magazine writer) reminds us that grassroots movements permanently transform lives and whole societies — only to trigger vicious backlash.
No woman had won best play since Wendy Wasserstein’s award for The Heidi Chronicles in 1989. That draught for female playwrights suggests too many producers remain squeamish about backing plays by and about women — let alone ones that stir right-wing elites’ animosity toward women as full people.
However, Wohl chose celebration over recrimination. “Tonight I want to honor [Wasserstein]. I want to honor women everywhere who have the courage to use their voice,” she declared. “And to all the girls out there, may you speak your truth and may the world be wise enough to listen.”
Like her play, Wohl’s remarks extolled us to avoid despondency. Faced with an adjudicated sexual abuser in the Oval Office who routinely demeans women, MAGA justices’ relegation of pregnant women to second-class citizenship, and an explosion of misogyny in the Pentagon and throughout the executive branch — as well as in Congress, social media and private industry — Wohl inspires us to link arms, battle for equality and respect, and refuse to relinquish the moral high ground.
In sum, New York and its endearing mayor had a banner week (and they may still snag the 2026 NBA championship banner). They touted the lowest number of “murders, shooting incidents, and shooting victims in recorded history for the first five months of the year.” Socialist Mamdani has every reason to tell his free-market critics to chill. (“Robust aggregate wage growth, higher Wall Street bonuses along with capital gains realization, and recent economic and collections data contributed to the [city’s] improved outlook.”)
Just as important, New Yorkers modeled how to be undaunted in the face of bullies and greedy gazillionaires, unapologetic about celebrating creative excellence and humanistic values, unrestrained in their exercise of free speech, and unabashed in displaying civic pride. How can you not ❤️NY?
For the last 40 something years, the motto of the age has been "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins." I think we are due for an upgrade: Whoever dies with the most joy, wins! And, know that tRump has never experienced a moment of true joy in his nearly 80 year rampage of a life.
New York knows Trump. He was booed at his NYC polling place when he ran the first time. He lost New York and New Jersey, home of his casino disaster, both times. We remember the Central Park Five. No excuses.