New York City business moguls ripped hedge-fund tycoon Bill Ackman for congratulating Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on his Tuesday win — after he famously spent a fortune trying to knock the left-wing lawmaker out of the high-stakes race.
Ackman, the billionaire boss of Pershing Square Capital, wrote late Tuesday to Mamdani on X: “congrats on the win. Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do.”
That was after Ackman had bankrolled major opposition to Mamdani — first backing lame duck Mayor Eric Adams’ failed reelection bid — then throwing his support behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who got hammered on Tuesday.
New York City business power broker Kathryn Wylde called Ackman’s olive branch “ridiculous,” saying he was merely “trying to justify a failed investment”.
“Having railed against Mamdani for months, literally, to now turn around and say he’s happy to help. I mean, really?” the outgoing CEO of Partnership for New York told The Post on Wednesday.
Wylde noted that Ackman — who had warned that Mamdani would make New York a more dangerous place and cause top businesses to flee the city if he won — had donated $1 million to Defend NYC, an anti-Mamdani super PAC, as well as $750,000 to Fix the City, a pro-Cuomo super PAC.
“He is trying to make news out of raising the white flag, and it gets him all the attention.”
Cliff Asness — the billionaire boss of AQR Capital Management — likewise ripped Ackman’s Mamdani overture as “gimp-like.”
He also questioned Ackman’s “self-awareness” — citing Ackman’s past criticism of Mamdani’s refusal to condemn Hamas in the wake of its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
“Soviet-style socialism and a support of terrorism with some obvious hate of Israel/Jews (please keep the Jews who supported him to yourself, I am well aware) is past disagreement, past congratulations, and past a gimp-like offer to help,” Asness, a Queens native, thundered Wednesday on X.
In an exclusive interview with The Post on Tuesday, Asness blasted Mamdani’s plan to freeze rents as a “hydrogen bomb” that would blow up the city’s real estate market.
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Meanwhile, Third Point CEO Dan Loeb — whose net worth is an estimated $3.8 billion — offered a simple, sarcastic jab in response to Ackman’s post.
“Ladies, find a man who loves you the way Bill Ackman loves himself,” he wrote on X.
The Post has approached a spokesman for Ackman for comment.
For his part, Mamdani said Wednesday he “appreciated [Ackman’s] words.”
“I think what I find is that there is a needed commitment from leaders of the city to speak and work with anyone who is committed to lowering the cost of living in the city — and that’s something that I will fulfill,” the mayor-elect told “Good Morning America.”
It’s not the first U-turn for Ackman when it comes to politics. In May 2023, Ackman called on JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to run in last year’s presidential election against Donald Trump — before switching sides and throwing his weight behind the GOP winner.
Ackman, whose estimated net worth is $9.5 billion, is also a recent convert to the current administration’s stance on strong borders, cracking down on illegal immigration and blasting woke causes such as DEI.
“Open borders will kill Western civilization. Careful vetting of immigrants, standards for being part of Western society, and deportation for violating those standards are going to become essential features of immigration policies globally,” he wrote on X three days after Trump’s second presidential election victory.
But his Pershing Square Foundation has in the past donated millions of dollars to charities that help undocumented migrants in this country.
“I am not going to explain to [Elliott Investment Management founder] Paul Singer how to launch a takeover bid,” joked one New York political operative who worked directly on the mayoral election race.
“But if there is one thing I know about billionaires, it is that they think they know everything about politics,” the insider added.
