Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian citizen who lives in Toronto and Miami Beach, Florida, revealed on Fox News that during his recent two-day stay in New York, he reached out to the office of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the 2025 New York City mayoral election.
O’Leary — who became famous as an investor nicknamed “Mr. Wonderful” on Shark Tank, the hit reality TV show — revealed that he had tried to contact Mamdani twice.
“I asked for a face-to-face meeting while I was here. Obviously he’s not here, he’s in Uganda right now, but I also got back a message saying no interest in meeting, which is for me, at least his people said that, I don’t know if it’s got to his ear yet, I’m quite shocked.”
Prompting O’Leary’s statement was the suggestion that “this character Mamdani…a flailing socialist” is dangerous and is causing a “Wall Street panic” — as the chyron below the interview declares.
A strong supporter of Donald Trump who believes that the top job of the President is “to embody the American dream,” O’Leary — who describes himself as a “policy guy” — recently criticized what he characterized as the anti-capitalist views of Mamdani and of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has endorsed Mamdani. The NYC mayoral candidate notably identifies as a Democratic Socialist like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has also faced dismissive criticism from O’Leary.]
I’m in New York for two days and reached out twice to Zohran Mamdani’s team to request a face-to-face meeting. No reply last night. This morning, they said “no interest.” That’s disappointing.
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) July 22, 2025
If he wants to lead this city, he should be open to hearing from investors. I’m not… pic.twitter.com/qrI6QEzRMu
O’Leary added of Mamdani: “He should take as many meetings with people like me as he possibly can. I want to find out how much of his policies are rhetoric or reality.”
O’Leary is not a U.S. citizen nor does he live in any of the five boroughs Mamdani will represent if elected as New York City mayor. But as O’Leary noted, “It’s a very important city for me and all investors,” and added, “I feel like I have very good advice for him.”
O’Leary said of being denied an audience with the candidate: “I was very disappointed.”
While some O’Leary fans are responding with claims that Mamdani is “scared” to meet the Shark Tank star, others say his demand for a meeting is unwarranted.
As one replied: “Wealthy guy demands meeting with mayoral candidate on short notice and is mad that the world did not bow to him. Frankly I don’t care for the candidate, but people like Kevin whose solution was ‘fire more people and keep firing them’ to business, not being catered too is fine.”
