Mamdani’s top housing pick once called homeownership a ‘weapon of white supremacy’

DOJ official 'on high alert' over Mamdani tenant office appointee

'Outnumbered' reacts to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tenant office pick after resurfaced comments on private property and homeowners ignite backlash and legal warnings.

In a resurfaced tweet and video clip, a top housing official in newly minted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration previously called homeownership a "weapon of white supremacy" and argued that property should be treated as a "collective good."

Cea Weaver, a longtime housing activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was tapped by Mamdani to be his director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Since taking office, Weaver has gone viral for several tweets she posted on her since-deleted X account. 

A screenshot of an Aug. 21, 2019, tweet shows Weaver writing that "private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy."

In an earlier tweet from Dec. 18, 2017, Weaver also called to "elect more communists." 

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives at the subway station in the Queens borough to go to City Hall in New York, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP Photo)

In a Democratic Socialists of America video from March 2021 that has since gone viral, Weaver said, "I think the reality is that for centuries, we have really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good."

She went on to say that "transitioning to treating it as a collective good towards a model of shared equity, will require that we think about it differently."

Weaver said that this "will mean that families, and white families especially, but some POC [people of color] families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have."

In response, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told Fox News that the "Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is on high alert as to the radical agenda promised by Mayor Mamdani, much of which is at odds with our federal Constitutional and civil rights norms."

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U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Dhillon said the DOJ "will not hesitate to take legal action to protect the civil rights of New York City residents."

Before joining the Mamdani administration, Weaver was a longtime housing activist and served as executive director of Housing Justice for All and the New York State Tenant Bloc.

In a statement announcing Weaver’s appointment, Mamdani said: "You cannot hold landlords who violate the law to account unless you have a proven principled and tireless fighter at the helm. That is why I am proud today to announce my friend Cea Weaver as the Director of the newly reinvigorated Mayor's office to protect tenants." 

In the statement, Weaver said she was "humbled and honored to join Mayor Mamdani’s administration – and to stand with him on his very first day in office as he makes clear where his priorities lie: with the millions of tenants in New York City who have been mistreated for too long by negligent landlords."

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Mamdani is sworn in as mayor on a pair of family Qurans.  (Amir Hamja/Pool via Reuters)

Weaver said that "our work will only grow and this newly revitalized office marks a new era of standing up for tenants and fighting for safe, stable, and affordable homes." 

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Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office and Weaver for comment, but did not immediately receive a response by press time. 

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.