One year after a presidential election where Donald Trump swept swing states and secured majorities in both houses of the US Congress, a first test has produced a radically different result. 34-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani has blown past establishment candidates for mayor of New York, unveiling his transition team this Wednesday. We ask about Mamdani's win and the highest turnout in the city's municipal elections in more than half a century. 

Read moreProgressive Democrat Zohran Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race

We also ask about wins for more moderate Democrats elsewhere in the US and whether Republicans should worry ahead of next year's Congressional midterms.

Donald Trump attributes the setback in part to the fact that he wasn't on the ballot. The US president may have a point: since returning to office, he has monopolised the airwaves. How do the TikTok skills of Zohran Mamdani measure up to the politics of outrage coming from the far right?

Will Trump double down on retribution? Will he send federal troops to more cities run by Democrats, including his native New York? More broadly, will democracy in America now grow more polarised, or will the centre eventually hold?