Mayor Zohran Mamdani threw his staff under the bus Tuesday after an awkward public disagreement between City Hall and NYPD officials over whether the department will send cops to serve as security detail for his wife Rama Duwaji’s upcoming Middle East trip.
Mamdani appeared to blame a mistake by his City Hall staff after a high-profile back-and-forth with the police department.
“There was a miscommunication. She has not yet taken that trip and when she takes that trip it will be without any NYPD detail,” Mamdani told PIX11.
The mayor’s clarification came after The Post reported late Monday that Duwaji – a 29-year-old Syrian-American artist described by Mamdani as a “private person” – planned to travel to Syria and Lebanon to visit family, with her police detail in tow.
“Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” Mamdani’s spokeswoman Dora Pekec had confirmed.
Both countries are on the US State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list due to security concerns.
But City Hall’s assertion drew a stunning response from the NYPD – a police force headed by Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a pro-Israel moderate who hasn’t been shy about her differences with the Israel critic Mamdani.
“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,” a department spokesperson insisted early Tuesday.
“This is not an investigative trip, and therefore, NYPD personnel will not be traveling there for it.”
The statement completely not only undercut Pekec’s assertion, but effectively amounted to NYPD officials breaking with their boss: Mamdani.
When asked about the disparity, Pekec directed The Post toward Mamdani’s remarks attributing the matter to a “miscommunication” to PIX11 during an event Tuesday morning that was closed to other press.
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