The leading mayoral candidate for New York City, Zohran Mamdani, is spending big on private security for his campaign and personal life despite previous calls to defund the police. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid and New York Police Department )
According to the company’s website, it is also a "proud employer" of personnel from the New York Police Department, which Mamdani previously called to defund, as well as the New York State Police, New York City Sheriff’s Office and several other law enforcement departments in the area.
The purpose listed for the various payments, which ranged from about $8,000 to around $13,000, is "security."
Mamdani has also recently made headlines for leaving New York City to throw a lavish wedding celebration in Uganda, which was reportedly guarded by armed special Ugandan military forces as well as his own private security detail.
The three-day-long exclusive wedding bash in Uganda also included masked military security and a cellphone-jamming system.
KRISTI NOEM REBUKES NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE ZOHRAN MAMDANI OVER ICE 'ABDUCTION' CLAIMS
New York Police officers gather outside the Parkchester Jame Masjid mosque for the funeral of officer Didarul Islam, on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
However, Mamdani has taken a very different tone during his campaign, saying this week that those tweets are "out of step with my positions as a candidate."
After the shooting, he told reporters during a press conference, "I am not running to defund the police."
However, he has not disavowed a more recent social media post from December 2024 in which he pledged to disband the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), which is tasked with responding to mass shootings and other emergencies.
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NYPD officers from the Strategic Response Group form a wall of protection around Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Michael Gerber and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kay Daughtry, not in the picture, during a press conference regarding the ongoing pro-Palestinians protest encampment at Columbia University in New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
He wrote, "As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements and brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their First Amendment rights."
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital's Cameron Arcand, Brie Stimson and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/zohran-mamdani-spending-big-private-security-despite-earlier-calls-defund-police