White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently called out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, for wearing expensive designer boots while accompanying her husband to his swearing-in ceremony on January 1, 2026.
The 28-year-old took to her Instagram story to share a New York Post article, which claimed that Duwaji wore $630 “artisan” leather boots from high-end fashion house Miista for the event.
Leavitt called out New York’s First Lady for hypocrisy as her husband largely promoted affordability during his campaign trail last year, while she donned pricey boots during his oath-taking ceremony.
“They want New Yorkers to hand over more than half their income to the government while she wears designer boots worth your weekly paycheck,” the Press Secretary wrote alongside the link.
“Classic Communists — rules for you, but not for them. There are reasons Communism has failed everywhere it’s been tried. Good luck, New York,” she added.
Duwaji paired her boots with black knee-length shorts and a dark Balenciaga wool coat, all of which, according to her stylist, were either borrowed or loaned.
Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji appears to wear luxury $630 boots to swearing in ceremony https://t.co/ohy0HVeByC pic.twitter.com/W9GuciHdhS
— New York Post (@nypost) January 1, 2026
“I’m just going to have to get comfortable with the fact that people on the internet do not understand what being lent a SAMPLE that has been borrowed before and will be borrowed again means but, you know what, that’s okay,” Duwaji’s stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson wrote on Substack.
“I love that she added a new chapter to garments that have already lived many lives—and that their next wearers will get to share in this piece of history,” she added.
While Mamdani never explicitly asked New Yorkers to “hand over half their income” as Leavitt claimed, he did, however, suggest taxing the rich residents to raise the city’s corporate tax rate and fund his multi-billionaire dollar plan.
Karoline Leavitt shrieked that Mayor Mamdani is a “communist” and his wife wore expensive (borrowed) boots at the Inauguration. Karoline was then strapped to a gurney and taken to a facility for Deranged Rich White Women Whose Meds Have Stopped Working pic.twitter.com/t9JT5GxjmM
— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) January 2, 2026
As part of his affordability plan, Zohran Mamdani promised multiple benefits, including universal childcare for children from 6 weeks to 5 years old, “free and fast” bus service, freezing rents for nearly two million tenants, and developing five city-run supermarkets to provide groceries at a lower rate.
During his inauguration, the newly-elected mayor said, “I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.”
He further added, “We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.” Mamdani sworn in as the 112th mayor of New York City in the former City Hall subway station, becoming the first Muslim and South Asian person to serve as mayor and also the youngest mayor in 100 years.
