Pete Davidson Takes Swipe at Mayor Zohran Mamdani: ‘I Don’t Think He’s Staten Island’

Pete Davidson knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a true Staten Islander.

In a recent conversation with Variety, the 32-year-old Saturday Night Live alum and unofficial ambassador of New York City’s southernmost borough played a game called “Staten Island or Not Staten Island,” where he was asked if Mayor Zohran Mamdani had any connection to the conservative enclave.

“Zohran Mamdani … is he Staten Island? I don’t know,” Davidson said. “I don’t think he’s from Staten Island.”

Debating if Mamdani, 34, had “Staten Island’s heart,” Davidson ultimately decided that the Democratic Socialist did not, adding, “I don’t think he’s Staten Island.”

He added, “I don’t have a problem with the guy, but I definitely don’t think he’s Staten Island at all. Staten Island’s the only red place in New York, and it’s violently red.”

And Davidson knows that from personal experience, telling Variety that most of his family is right-leaning, in fact.

“You know, most of my family is, you know, on the red side. It’s not that, like, storm the capital vibe. It’s more just like, ‘[Trump is] funny. Like, I don’t care. I just need something different,'” the King of Staten Island star, who famously grew up in the borough, explained.

He continued, “Like, it’s not like a racist, misogynistic sort of thing, it’s just like … it’s 1985 over there. You are not a real Staten Island politician unless you have a secret family and know one mobster.”

“I would not trust you to run Staten Island,” he added.

Davidson’s latest comments come just days after he asked Mamdani to do something about the long fraught Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The major New York City highway, which runs through Brooklyn and Queens, has long been criticized for traffic congestion and aging infrastructure.

The request, which came during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! during the show’s Brooklyn run, was not only met with applause, but an answer from the New York City mayor, who was also a guest on Kimmel’s show.

“We’re going to be putting a multibillion-dollar plan to actually repair the part the city owns,” Mamdani said. “Which is the part that is currently the most at risk and that’s going to be proceeding over the next 10 years. Full safety. No diversion of traffic into local neighborhoods and actually bring it back.”

The BQE Central Project, which is set to cost $4 billion in total, will rehabilitate the city-owned section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, with construction expected to begin in 2030.