Confusion over a possible police escort for Rama Duwaji deepened Tuesday as the NYPD rejected City Hall’s claim that officers would travel with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife on her upcoming Middle East trip. The dispute centers on whether New York City police will accompany Duwaji to Syria and Lebanon, two countries on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list.
An NYPD spokesperson said the department does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons that are not tied to investigative work. The spokesperson added that this is not an investigative trip and that NYPD personnel will not be traveling there for it. Duwaji, 29, is expected to begin the trip Sept. 20, starting in Lebanon and Syria.
City Hall had presented the arrangement as settled. Mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec said that, upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the first lady’s security detail would join her when she traveled to visit family in Syria and Lebanon. But the police department quickly pushed back, creating an awkward public mismatch between the mayor’s office and the force that would normally handle the protection detail.
A source with knowledge of the trip said it is not official city business. Another source familiar with Duwaji’s security detail said she asked for NYPD protection after a previous overseas trip last month without police security. Mamdani has described his wife as a private person, and the issue has now drawn attention because of the security and optics involved in sending a mayor’s spouse into a region covered by a federal travel warning.
