Harger: Sawant rallies the far left. Mamdani works with Trump. Where does Seattle Mayor-elect Wilson fit?
Nov 24, 2025, 7:38 AM | Updated: 2:32 pm
Seattle just elected a socialist mayor, and so did New York City. But watching them navigate President Trump’s personality is revealing something fascinating: Even socialists can’t agree on whether to charm or confront while implementing their agenda.
On Friday, New York’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani sat in the Oval Office, laughing with Trump, finding common ground on housing costs, and even posing for photos in front of FDR’s portrait. Trump defended him from hostile questions, called him “different” and “rational,” and predicted he’d do great things for New York.
Former Seattle councilmember Kshama Sawant’s response?
“Are you f***ing serious? Trump has just spent this whole year royally screwing over 10s of millions of Americans,” Sawant shared on social media Sunday night.
According to Sawant, real socialists need to “build a working-class army to defeat the billionaires and their system,” not share pleasantries in the Oval Office.
Remember, this is the same Sawant who unlocked the city hall to allow protesters inside. The same one who called for Boeing workers to seize the factories. Now she’s running for Congress against Adam Smith, promising to turn her inauguration into a 10,000-person protest rally.
And she’s escalating. Last month at Cal Anderson Park, Sawant endorsed a general strike threat from tech workers. She’s calling for national strikes to end military aid to Israel. At her “Fight the Rich” conference, she demanded “mass strike action” against billionaires. Her solution to everything? Shut down the economy until demands are met.
Katie Wilson takes office in six weeks. Forget the tax debate for a moment. Her real challenge is choosing a lane. Mamdani is already in the Oval Office making nice with Trump. Sawant is calling for national strikes.
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Wilson sits in the middle of those two worlds
She can either try to steady a shaky city, or she can chase Sawant’s applause line about shutting down the economy. And Seattle voters will figure out very quickly which path she picks.
I’ve asked Wilson’s team directly: If Trump invited her to the White House like he did Mamdani, would she go? Has she considered reaching out proactively, especially after Trump explicitly called her a “communist” last week while threatening Seattle’s World Cup games? After all, Mamdani’s Oval Office charm offensive got Trump to back off from New York City.
Trump’s already gunning for Seattle. He’s still furious about CHAZ and CHOP. It sounds like he wants to make Seattle his example of radical failure, and it will be interesting to see if Wilson’s political skills are up to the challenge.
Seattle voters rejected moderation. They chose transformation over incremental change. Fair enough. Democracy spoke.
But whether you package your policies with Mamdani’s charm or Sawant’s revolution, math doesn’t care about your ideology. Businesses still calculate costs and benefits. And increasingly, they’re calculating that Bellevue looks pretty good.
Wilson inherits a city where downtown struggles, where young professionals can’t afford rent despite tech salaries. She also inherits Trump’s animosity and Sawant’s pressure to be more militant.
Will she follow Mamdani to the White House? Or follow Sawant into the streets?
Oh, and with Sawant running for Congress, we’ll be hearing her calls for general strikes all through 2026. Welcome to Seattle’s future. Bellevue’s city council is probably sending thank-you cards.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
