Rama Duwaji, the First Lady of New York and wife of Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has apparently found a new way to honor American freedom.
Rather than celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary of independence alongside her fellow citizens, she chose to spend the holiday week on a ritzy Mediterranean island attending [1] a luxury Islamic spiritual retreat.
The event, titled “The Women’s Sanctuary,” took place in sunny Mallorca, Spain, where Duwaji served as the artist in residence.
Tickets to attend this so-called spiritual detox ran a cool $3,400 per person, making it clear that this was less about piety and more about prestige.
As patriotic New Yorkers gathered under fireworks to honor America’s founding, the city’s First Lady was, according to reports, embarking on a floral art journey celebrating “Plants of the Quran.”
The New York Post broke the story after spotting Duwaji boarding a flight at Newark International Airport earlier in the week.
The 29-year-old artist, who boasts a resume of Texas roots, Dubai education, and Syrian heritage, boarded an eight-hour flight to Palma, leaving behind her husband who spent his Independence Day criticizing the United States from behind George Washington’s desk at City Hall.
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Critics were quick to call out the First Lady’s priorities.
As Mayor Mamdani lectured citizens about lowering their air conditioning usage amid a brutal heat wave, his wife was cooling off in a luxury spa on the Spanish coast.
Conservative commentator Arynne Wexler posted photos of Duwaji at the boarding gate, remarking on the irony of the couple’s lifestyle.
“Funny how when @ZohranKMamdani was telling New Yorkers to lower their AC his wife Rama Duwaji was boarding a flight to party in Mallorca,” Wexler wrote.
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Other local leaders were equally unimpressed. Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola told the Post, “Nothing says ‘America 250’ quite like skipping the celebration for a Mediterranean vacation, but I am not surprised because she has made her hatred for America very evident.”
Staten Island Councilman Frank Morano added, “It’s disappointing that the First Lady chose to be overseas instead of taking part in one of the biggest civic events our city and country will mark this year.”
Duwaji’s anti-American record didn’t materialize overnight.
Earlier this year, the Washington Free Beacon exposed several of her since-deleted social media posts.
In one 2015 post, she mocked US troops serving abroad, declaring, “American soldiers fighting in imperialist wars are not brave nor are they fighting for anyone’s freedom.
They are mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians and fighting to maintain American hegemony.”
After public outrage, she issued a carefully worded apology this spring, though many observers doubt her sincerity.
Adding insult to injury, Duwaji isn’t done with her spiritual jet setting.
Once her Mallorca retreat wraps up, she’s scheduled to help host another sold-out Women’s Sanctuary event in Corsica, France. That course, titled “Mary in the Quran,” will again be a pricey mix of botanical workshops, artistic meditation, and religious discussion, all far removed from the taxpayers of New York City.
Meanwhile, Mayor Mamdani spent July 4th making headlines of his own.
Seated behind George Washington’s desk, which appeared to have been deliberately turned backward, Mamdani delivered a speech lambasting the country’s immigration legacy and painting America as a place of oppression.
“America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin,” Mamdani declared to a handpicked audience of so-called migrants waving small flags.
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His lecture was met with mixed reactions, with critics noting the mayor’s pattern of focusing more on grievances than on unity.
Perhaps the most glaring contradiction of the week came from Mamdani’s environmental virtue signaling.
During the same time he ordered city residents to set their thermostats to 78 degrees to conserve power, reports surfaced that parts of City Hall were kept as cold as 54 degrees.
EXPOSED: The New York Post CAUGHT Socialist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani red-handed bringing a thermometer into City Hall and DISCOVERING that NEARLY every room was cooler than the 78-degree AC limit he imposed on everyone else — with one room hovering at a frosty 54 degrees.
NYP:… pic.twitter.com/Rq0Y9ZCRhQ [2]
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) July 3, 2026 [3]
It’s a privileged double standard that’s grown far too common among elite progressives who demand self-sacrifice from everyone else.
The Mamdani-Duwaji duo embodies a certain brand of leftist elitism that talks endlessly about oppression while enjoying all the comforts that come with power.
For a mayor who claims America is built on exclusion and supremacy, it’s fascinating how his family never seems to feel excluded from luxury airlines or five-star getaways.
Critics say it all sums up the Mamdani administration’s tone deafness.
As millions of regular Americans celebrated their nation’s founding by working, grilling, or cheering fireworks with friends, the city’s liberal leadership was too busy lecturing about inequality from an air-conditioned office while the First Lady basked in the Mediterranean sun in the name of “spiritual reflection.”
For many New Yorkers, the message couldn’t be clearer.
The so-called leaders who preach compassion for the working class are more concerned with expensive international retreats and political grandstanding than showing up for the country that gives them both their platform and their freedom.
The optics of the First Lady’s absence on Independence Day were not just bad, they were an insult to every patriotic New Yorker who still believes America is worth celebrating.