Conservative activist David McIntosh recently made a widely mocked misstep on social media when attempting to criticize New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's initiative to provide discounted food staples.
McIntosh, a co-founder of the Federalist Society and the Club for Growth, shared a photo on X of Mayor Mamdani holding unripened plantains during a press conference. The conference was announcing the launch of city-owned supermarkets aimed at offering affordable food. McIntosh captioned the image, "I, for one, do not want to eat the suspiciously green bananas from the government store," erroneously identifying the fruit.
He subsequently posted a video of himself eating a ripe banana, stating, "Hey, Mayor Mamdani, I just got this banana at a nice little bodega down the street, owned by a sweet couple. They don’t need a city store there, it’s really good, much better than your green bananas." The attempt to disparage the mayor's initiative instead led to criticism that McIntosh seemed unaware of the concept of ripening fruit.