34 year-old Zohran Mamdani completed his stunning ascent in New York City politics as the largest city in America elected the young Democrat as their new mayor on Tuesday night.
Mamdani ascended in spite of opposition from mainstream Democrats and, more naturally, Republicans throughout the political spectrum. President Donald Trump and the White House even took an aggressive stance in the local race, suggesting that the federal government could enact some kind of retribution on the city if New York’s voters elected Mamdani in a fair and free election.
While that hasn’t happened just yet, the White House did try to mock Mamdani’s victory on social media. But even that didn’t go according to plan.
The official White House X account posted a meme that said “Trump is your president” fashioned as the logo of the New York Knicks. It harkened back to a similar meme that Mamdani himself used where he inserted his name in place of the Knicks logo.
The Knicks sent Mamdani a cease and desist over his use of the logo and also made it clear they were not endorsing him in the mayor’s race. But if Trump thought that condemnation gave the White House free use of the logo, he and his team were mistaken. According to Front Office Sports, the Knicks sent the White House a similar note and the post was quietly deleted.
The Knicks reached out to the White House after it used their logo to mock NYC’s mayor-elect — the post was later deleted, per @FOS pic.twitter.com/6Oy9U0sFfF
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) November 5, 2025
“The Knicks remain neutral on political matters,” the team told Front Office Sports. “We hope all our elected officials, whether current or recently elected, do a great job in office.”
The Trump administration is no stranger to trying to use intellectual property from the sports world to advance their political agenda. Earlier this year IndyCar shut down a post from the Department of Homeland Security using the racing series to promote a “Speedway Slammer” immigration detention facility.