New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani showed up to a fallen soldier's funeral in Queens with a eulogy loaded on his iPad, and sat through the entire service without anyone calling his name to speak.
Army Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad, 28, grew up in Ozone Park, graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and enlisted in the Army following her uncle's path. On July 17, Iranian missiles and drones struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, killing Rampersad and two fellow service members: 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas. Rampersad's funeral was held at Calvary Assembly of God church in her home neighborhood of Ozone Park, Queens.
Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards spoke. Other officials took turns at the microphone. Mamdani, the city's mayor, sat in the fourth row, scrolled through his prepared remarks on an iPad, and waited. His name was never called. Eventually, the Daily Caller reported, he looked toward his staff and put the tablet away.
An unnamed source who attended the service told the New York Post the scene plainly:
"They kept calling names and then he was never called."
Sources involved in planning the funeral told the Post the decision was tied to the family's politics. One insider said Rampersad's relatives back President Donald Trump and preferred to keep the ceremony free of political friction. City Hall did not answer repeated requests for comment from the Post.
Mamdani is a democratic socialist who has criticized Israel and the U.S. campaign against Iran, positions that put him sharply at odds with a Gold Star family mourning a daughter killed by Iranian weapons. The family did not want that friction at the service, and they made the call.
City Councilman Frank Morano, a Staten Island Republican who was seated near Mamdani, told the Post he was surprised that lower-ranking officials spoke while the mayor did not. That observation underlines just how deliberate the exclusion was. This was not an oversight on a crowded program. Officials with far less standing were invited to the microphone. The mayor of New York City was not.
It is not the first time ordinary New Yorkers have made clear they do not want Mamdani representing them at moments that matter. Families of 9/11 victims have petitioned to bar the mayor from Ground Zero's 25th anniversary ceremony, another sign that his political identity alienates the very communities a mayor is supposed to serve.
Hochul, a Democrat herself, struck a different tone at the service. She honored Rampersad directly.
"I feel after reading and admiring this woman from a distance, I feel like she could be one of my daughters."
After the service, Mamdani's press team circulated the undelivered eulogy, labeling it as "prepared." The excerpt released read in part:
"Sergeant Rampersad had tomorrows waiting for her: birthdays, ordinary mornings, evenings spent with her loved ones. But she gave every one of them up so that we could have ours, so that we could stand here today, safe and protected."
Fine words. But the family of the woman who gave those tomorrows decided the man saying them was not welcome at the microphone. Circulating the speech afterward, stamped "prepared," only drew more attention to the fact that the people closest to Sgt. Rampersad did not want to hear it from him.
The episode fits a pattern. Mamdani's administration has repeatedly found itself at odds with the New Yorkers it governs, whether managing a public health crisis that killed seven or claiming credit for a $104 million delivery tip increase he had nothing to do with.
The attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base killed three American service members. Rampersad, Feehan, and Gonzales ranged in age from 19 to 28. They came from Queens, Hawaii, and Texas. They served in Jordan, far from home, and died when Iranian missiles hit their base.
Rampersad's family buried her in the neighborhood where she grew up, in a church they chose, with speakers they approved. They exercised the one privilege a Gold Star family should never have to use, and said no to the most powerful official in their city.
Mamdani has also drawn scrutiny for leaving the door open to cash reparations, deferring to a city commission rather than taking a clear position, another instance of a mayor who seems more comfortable with ideological posturing than with the straightforward duties of the office.
The New York Post's cover on August 1 captured the moment bluntly, and the paper's official account on X posted the image with the headline: "Fuming Mamdani blocked from speaking at fallen NYC soldier's funeral despite writing speech: 'He was never called.'"
Whether Mamdani was fuming is the Post's characterization. What is on the record is simpler: he came with a speech, he sat in the fourth row, and the family of a 28-year-old sergeant killed by Iranian weapons decided he was not the right person to eulogize her.
When a Gold Star family would rather leave the mayor's chair empty at the podium than let him speak, the problem is not the family's manners. It is the mayor's record.
