Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute since 2019, reflects on his personal and professional journey amid New York City’s evolving political landscape. At 46, Salam leads the free-market think tank known for its focus on urban policy and its historical influence during the Rudy Giuliani mayoral era. He contrasts his views sharply with those of current Mayor Zohran Mamdani, highlighting a broader ideological clash in the city’s governance.

Salam’s formative experience occurred at age 19 when he was mugged outside his parents’ Brooklyn home. Despite the trauma, he recalls the police response as "compassionate" and "competent," which shaped his appreciation for law enforcement and influenced his skepticism toward the growing anti-police sentiment in left-wing politics. Born and raised in Brooklyn to Bangladeshi immigrant parents, Salam traces his political outlook to New York's transformation under Giuliani, crediting the former mayor’s focus on public safety and enterprise for the city’s resurgence.

Under Mamdani, a self-described socialist and the city’s first South Asian Muslim mayor, Salam perceives a punitive approach to equality that, in his view, undermines New York’s economic dynamism. He criticizes Mamdani’s reliance on government aid and regulations, referring to it as “tin-cup urbanism,” and faults the mayor’s framework for attributing the city’s challenges to external forces. Salam rejects what he calls “immaculate conception leftism,” where private sector initiatives are only acceptable if they fully align with progressive criteria. Instead, he advocates for reducing governmental barriers to encourage private enterprise and housing development.

The Manhattan Institute, founded in 1978, has been a platform for Salam's intellectual formation. He recalls engaging with its flagship publication, City Journal, during high school, embracing its nonconformist views on crime control, school choice, and housing policy. The institute gained prominence for its role in shaping Giuliani’s policies, including “broken windows” policing and social services reform. Salam emphasizes the institute’s ongoing mission to provide data-driven arguments and bolster opposition against the city’s leftward shift, which accelerated with the election of Bill de Blasio in 2013 and figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Julia Salazar.

Salam notes that many of the institute’s scholars have emerged publicly to challenge Mamdani’s policies, offering critiques across areas such as fiscal management, public safety, homelessness, and education. Among key voices are Nicole Gelinas on fiscal policy, Eric Kober on government-run grocery stores, Rafael Mangual on law enforcement capacity, and Wai Wah Chin on admissions policies at elite high schools. Salam credits the institute with influencing recent mayoral shifts, including the acceptance of mayoral control over schools and renewed efforts to clear encampments.

On a personal level, Salam identifies as an American Muslim but describes himself as not particularly observant. He emphasizes gratitude toward the United States for its embrace of religious freedom and opportunity, contrasting this with what he views as Mamdani’s adversarial stance toward American exceptionalism. Salam expresses concern about the current generation’s assimilation, warning that some immigrants adopt a narrative of grievance and systemic racism rather than a commitment to American values.

Salam contextualizes Mamdani’s socialist outlook as rooted in a worldview shaped by Marxist and Third Worldist ideologies, including a focus on imperialism and victimhood that he perceives as politicizing Islam. In contrast, Salam reflects on his own assimilation into a “Jewish-inflected America,” inspired by immigrant stories of resilience and upward mobility. He deplores the recent rise in antisemitism in New York, attributing it in part to resentments linked to Mamdani’s political base and rhetoric. Salam considers this phenomenon a threat to both the city’s social fabric and broader American ideals.

Amid these challenges, Salam positions the Manhattan Institute as a stabilizing force, committed to preserving a vision of New York defined by meritocracy, enterprise, and civic order. He sees the institute’s role as crucial not only in influencing policy today but also in preparing for the city’s political future beyond the current mayoral administration.