New York City’s incoming administration under Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is already hitting turbulence before even taking off.
According to the Daily Caller, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, named as Director of Appointments on December 17, 2025, stepped down just 24 hours later on December 18, after a storm of criticism over resurfaced social media posts from over a decade ago that targeted Jewish communities, law enforcement, and white individuals.
For hardworking taxpayers across the city, this debacle raises serious questions about vetting processes and the potential financial burden of repeated staffing missteps—every reshuffle costs time and public dollars that could be spent on fixing potholes or funding schools.
The trouble started when old posts from 2011 and 2012 surfaced, revealing Da Costa’s references to “money hungry Jews” and a subway line as the “Jew train,” alongside jabs at “rich Jewish peeps.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of New York and New Jersey didn’t mince words, slamming these remarks on December 18 as invoking “classic antisemitic tropes.” That’s a polite way of saying these comments were a throwback to ugly stereotypes that have no place in public office.
By the end of that day, Da Costa had deleted the posts and shut down her social media account, but the damage was already done.
But wait, there’s more—Da Costa’s digital footprint also showed disdain for law enforcement, with profanity-laced rants against police, calling them “piggies,” and advocating to defund the NYPD.
During the 2020 protests after George Floyd’s death, she backed slashing the NYPD budget by $1 billion and pulling officers from schools and subways—positions that make many law-abiding citizens nervous about public safety.
Her past comments about white people, spanning 2016 to 2020, didn’t help, including a 2016 post stating, “It’s important that white people feel defeated.” Talk about a unity message—hardly the tone you’d expect from someone tasked with building a citywide team.
Da Costa did issue an apology, saying, “As the mother of two Jewish children, I deeply regret and apologize for these tweets from well over a decade ago.”
She added that these views no longer reflect who she is, but skeptics wonder how such deeply troubling sentiments could ever have been posted by someone now entrusted with a key government role.
Meanwhile, Mayor-elect Mamdani isn’t exactly squeaky clean himself, having faced flak for past antisemitic and anti-police rhetoric, including his reluctance to denounce calls to “globalize the intifada”—a phrase many see as endorsing violence.
His campaign ties to controversial figures, as a Muslim cleric linked to terror plotters and staff picks including a professor who called police “violence workers,” suggest a pattern of questionable judgment that’s got conservatives and moderates alike raising eyebrows.
Mamdani’s team called Da Costa’s past remarks “unacceptable” and distanced themselves, claiming they don’t align with his administration’s values, though a spokesperson dodged requests for further comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
