On November 2, US Vice President JD Vance shared an X post crediting the Donald Trump administration for several achievements in New York City, including lower crime rate and more than $472 billion in investments. New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani responded to the post with no words, simply sharing a viral meme video that nevertheless managed to overshadow Vance’s post by a mile.
To understand what happened, let’s dig a little deeper. However, social media users accused Vance of misleading viewers with data that is not specific to New York. A user-generated community note under Vance’s post read: “Several figures here aren’t federal results or NY-specific. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared a wordless reaction to Vance’s post that was widely-interpreted as him mocking the Trump administration for taking credit for work they did not do. Mamdani replied to Vance with a video of a man pretending to help slow a subway train. Dressed in a neon vest, the man pretends to open the automatic train doors and ushers passengers inside before giving the greenlight for the train to move. Essentially, it shows more people are disagreeing with or criticising a post than supporting it.
At the time of writing, JD Vance’s New York data post had received less than 10,000 ‘likes’ on X. By contrast, Zohran Mamdani’s response to the post has gone viral with a whopping 1.8 million ‘likes’. The list included lower crime rate in New York, fewer shootings, preserving wages and jobs, and delivering over $472 in tech investments through Micron, Anthropic and IBM. Anthropic’s $50 billion investment, for example, is supposed to cover both Texas and New York. (Also read: Mamdani appears stone-faced as Trump praises his ‘great potential’: ‘Visibly flustered’ ) An AOL report also noted how Micron’s $250 billion does not represent investment in New York alone. The $472B combines US wide pledges: Micron’s $250B is nationwide (NY site $100B) Anthropic’s $50B covers TX and NY. The 48% murder drop is from NY’s state run GIVE program (28 departments, Jan – May 2026). In this case, JD Vance’s post collected a total of 9,700 ‘likes’. Mamdani’s reaction video, on the other hand, got 1.8 million ‘likes’.
One X user called it “the most brutal ratio in the history of this site”. Another said she was the “first in my bloodline to witness a mayor use a reaction video to roast a vice president. In internet slang, to ratio someone—or to get ratioed—means a reply or comment gets more likes, engagement, or negative pushback than the original social media post, according to Merriam-Webster.
Shortly before the US midterm elections, US Vice President JD Vance shared a list of the Trump administration’s supposed achievements in New York.
The video essentially shows the neon-vested man taking credit for work he did not do — and the implication of Mamdani’s response was not lost on X users. Reactions and ‘likes’ on Zohran Mamdani ’s response to JD Vance far outstripped the number of ‘likes’ on Vance’s post. In social media slang, this is known as ‘ratio’ or getting ‘ratioed’.
