A decade-old radio interview in which New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks in a noticeably different accent has resurfaced online, drawing pointed criticism from conservatives who call the performance a calculated fraud.
The clip, recorded in 2016 on South Africa's Kaya 959 radio station, shows Mamdani promoting his mother's Disney film Queen of Katwe, and speaking in what critics describe as an exaggerated Ugandan accent sharply at odds with his usual New York cadence. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda but moved to New York City at age seven, told the interviewer he was "from Uganda" and contrasted Ugandan and New York dance culture. Fox News Digital reported that the clip spread rapidly across the social media platform X on Wednesday, triggering a wave of mockery from conservative commentators, media outlets, and political figures.
The mayor's office has not responded. Fox News Digital reached out for comment but received no reply as of publication.
Mamdani served as music supervisor and third assistant director on Queen of Katwe, a Disney film based on the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy. His mother, Mira Nair, directed the picture. Mamdani also appeared in a brief on-screen cameo. During the Kaya 959 interview, he leaned into his Ugandan roots.
In the clip, Mamdani described the difference between nightlife in Kampala and New York:
"The difference for me is I'm from Uganda, but I also grew up in New York. In New York, you go out, some guys are very hesitant to dance. You know, if they're not grinding, they're just standing. In Kampala, you will just not find that. People are all dancing. Everybody's dancing, men, women and it's fantastic that way."
Mamdani holds dual U.S. and Ugandan citizenship. He was born in Uganda, raised partly in South Africa, and arrived in New York at age seven. Before entering politics, the Washington Examiner noted, he performed as a rapper under the stage names "Young Cardamom" and "Mr. Cardamom." None of that background has stopped critics from questioning why his speaking voice shifts so dramatically depending on the audience.
The backlash was broad and fast. Benny Johnson, host of The Benny Show, posted on X:
"UNEARTHED: Zohran Mamdani does an obviously fake Ugandan accent while promoting a Disney movie based in Africa. How many Democrats have been caught using fake accents at this point? They're all frauds."
Spencer Pratt, the reality TV personality and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, was blunter. He called Mamdani a "theater kid commie" and accused him of "appropriating African culture." Pratt added: "Communists are all frauds. EVERY single one."
Mamdani has drawn controversy on other fronts as well. Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have condemned his "war criminal" rhetoric aimed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the mayor has faced scrutiny over his ties to a Qatar-based outlet the Anti-Defamation League has flagged as antisemitic.
The Daily Wire kept it short: "Nobody does a fake accent better than a Democrat politician." Conservative Brief asked, "What is with the Democrats and their fake accents?!" Tara Bull, a conservative social media commentator, quipped that Mamdani "must've studied at Obama University", a jab linking him to a long-running conservative complaint about Democratic politicians who shift their speech patterns for different audiences.
Sammy Antar, the former Crazy Eddie CFO and convicted fraudster, took a different angle. He posted on X:
"Has Zohran Mamdani ever explained when adopting another culture's accent is 'cultural appropriation' and when it is 'authenticity'? He had plenty to say about everyone else's privilege at Bowdoin."
Antar's post pointed to a contradiction that several critics raised: Mamdani built part of his political identity on calling out cultural privilege, yet the 2016 clip shows him adopting a voice that sounds nothing like the one New Yorkers hear from City Hall. Whether that amounts to fraud or simply code-switching, something multilingual, multicultural people do naturally, is a question Mamdani has so far declined to address.
This is not the clip's debut. Fox News Digital noted that the same footage resurfaced last year, though it drew less attention at the time. Mamdani was not yet mayor during that earlier round of criticism. Now that he runs the largest city in the country, the stakes, and the audience, are different.
Kevin Smith, host of Loud Majority Live, tied the accent controversy to Mamdani's broader political posture. He posted on X: "When did Disney start to suck? When they hired the directors son who had a fake Ugandan accent. He didn't mind 'big corporations' when they were signing his checks." The comment underscored a recurring conservative critique: that Mamdani rails against corporate power while his own career benefited from one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates.
Mamdani's tenure at City Hall has already produced a string of controversies that have nothing to do with accents. He has faced criticism for a taxpayer-funded video targeting a Jewish landlord, and hate crimes have surged in New York City under his watch, with Jewish residents bearing the brunt.
His governance style has raised eyebrows as well. Mamdani purged business leaders from the NYC Mayor's Fund advisory board, a move that critics said reflected ideological rigidity rather than sound management.
No independent linguistic analysis of the 2016 clip has been published. The fact pack contains no expert assessment of whether Mamdani's speech in the interview reflects a natural shift, common among people who grew up in multiple countries, or a deliberate performance. Mamdani's biography gives him a plausible claim to the accent: he was born in Uganda and spent early childhood in East Africa before moving to the United States. But the gap between the voice on Kaya 959 and the voice at a New York City press conference is wide enough that critics noticed it immediately, and Mamdani has offered no public explanation.
Fox News Digital's request for comment went unanswered. In politics, silence is a choice, and it rarely settles anything.
When a mayor who lectures others about privilege and authenticity won't explain his own shape-shifting, voters are left to draw the obvious conclusion.
