A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Over the past week, I've been repeatedly struck by the sharp contrasts we've seen unfolding across two of America's greatest cities – Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Both have been caught up in the spectacle of sports this week, as Washington witnessed a UFC fight staged on the lawn of the White House while NYC was consumed by the historic championship run of the New York Knicks. And both of those spectacles have been refracted through the most prominent political figures in town, President Donald Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani. And both, in turn, showcase stark differences between their visions for their cities and for the nation as well.

When he's not busy destroying the economy or losing wars of his own choosing, Donald Trump's top priority as president has been redecorating.

He's gilded the interior of the Oval Office with an incredible amount of tacky little tchotchkes, a sweaty collection of participation trophies, and other assorted obscenities. He's slapped the words OVAL OFFICE on the exterior wall, too, labeling one of the most famous places on the planet with the kind of identification they'd mandate in an assisted living facility. And then down that classical and once classy colonnade, he put up a series of portraits labeled the Presidential Walk of Fame, filled with fawning praise for himself and bitchy comments about his rivals.

The HGTV Presidency has gone far beyond that, of course. Trump paved over the Rose Garden to put in a shitty bistro patio that recreates the dementia patient's old home at Mar-a-Lago. He's destroyed the East Wing in his quixotic quest for a giant golden ballroom. All across Washington, he's painted statues gold, put his face and name on federal buildings, proposed constructing a massive "triumphal arch" and even tried renovating the reflecting pool (with hysterical results).

The UFC fight, held what the MAGA cult calls "the president's house" on the president's 80th birthday, is merely the latest manifestation of the ways in which this administration is defiling D.C. in order to appease their necrotic, neurotic cult leader. But that ugly UFC cage – which Trump wants to be a permanent fixture, having compared it to the Eiffel Tower – also serves as a symbol of Trump's own politics.

Trump is, as we know, financially and politically in bed with the UFC and its owner Dana White, a Joe Rogan lookalike (not a compliment!). This is an extension of Trump's long engagement with various forms of fighting, whether that be boxing, or pro wrestling, or mixed martial arts like UFC. Violent and almost cartoonishly macho, with an intense level of showmanship and strutting performance. Trump himself is a man who's softer than spoiled tapioca and who's had everything handed to him without trying, but that's all the more reason for him to be drawn to hypermasculine competitions like these.

And to be sure, this was entirely about him. This was his own sad little party, held in his torn-up backyard on his 80th birthday. While the White House insisted it was actually being held for the rest of us, anyone who actually wanted to watch this obscenity had to be a paid subscriber to Paramount Plus, which of course is run by another billionaire buddy of the president.

Despite the considerable hype, the actual fights were almost an afterthought. The biggest headline came when one of the winners used his post-fight speech to claim that former First Lady Michelle Obama is secretly a man. (This was an unneeded reminder that these people are still obsessed with the Obamas and somehow even more obsessed trans folks.)

The UFC fight was, in short, an ugly event showcasing ugly people on an ugly stage in service for an ugly president and his ugly politics. It didn't matter that only 16% of Americans approved of the event. This was about one man and one man only.

Contrast that with what we saw this same week in New York City as the Knicks made their historic run in the NBA playoffs, culminating in their first title since 1973. (To give you a sense of how long a drought that was, that was the same year Donald Trump and his father were being charged with racial discrimination in their rental housing by the goddamn Nixon administration.)

While no one really wanted the Washington UFC stunt, the Knicks playoff run has been incredibly popular, bringing out a diverse set of fans for watch parties and celebrations across the city.

No one has been a bigger booster than the mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Unlike Trump, who spent so much time and taxpayer money remaking Washington in his perverse presidential image, Mayor Mamdani's made a rather different mark on his city. He's focused on improving the quality of life for New Yorkers, filling 100,000 potholes in his first 100 days and tackling other persistent problems as well. And through it all, he's communicated a genuine enthusiasm for the people and places of New York City. (Again, his boosterism stands in sharp contrast with Trump's trash talk about Washington DC, which he's called a "dirty and disgusting" "trashy" "hellhole.")

While Trump closed off the UFC event to most Americans, Mamdani has done everything he could to make the Knicks games accessible to all New Yorkers. When the moronic MAGA owner stubbornly tried to clamp down on the watch parties, Mamdani responded by getting the game aired on all the LinkNYC terminals around the city and hosting his own watch parties in Bryant Park and elsewhere. He even jokingly "repealed" bedtime for NYC kids so they could watch the games too.

Unlike the narrow-minded MAGA politics of the UFC fight, the Knicks fanbase has contained multitudes. An incredible constellation of fans fueled this championship run, with watch parties on the open streets of the city bringing together different cultures in celebration.

And much like New York itself, the collision of these cultures hasn't brought conflict as much as it's created common ground, mixing and matching different traditions of music and dancing in a capacious celebration of pure joy. Fat Joe marveled that he saw "Hasidic Jews breakdancing with Black kids," while a Bengali poet and Sikh dholi players created their own scene.

The embodiment of this multicultural moment came with the now iconic chant: "My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish, my Christian Dior – Knicks in four!"

That's the real contrast here, between a proudly diverse NYC that celebrates all its residents and a reactionary Washington that elevates only its president.

The nation's capital is lovely when it's not being misruled and mangled as it is now, but make no mistake – New York City is the most thoroughly "American" spot in the entire country. For centuries now, wave after wave of new arrivals, coming from other parts of America and every corner of the planet, have come to the city to make their fortune, to find their freedom, to forge their future. They're remade themselves in the process, and thereby remade the city and the country that takes so much direction from it. They've made us better.

And that's why Republicans in general and MAGA in particular spend so much time trash-talking Mamdani's New York City. Not because it's a failure, but because it's a success. It's a success that flatly disproves every sweaty lie they've pushed about how "real America" is essentially white, male, straight, and cis.

Diversity is, in fact, our strength.

Don't ever let these racist dullards convince you otherwise.