Both sides, in good faith

The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.

The case for

Those who share Trump's criticism argue that solemnity at a memorial for nearly three thousand people who died is not a matter of personal taste but a basic expression of respect owed to grieving families, and that elected officials in particular have a duty to model that gravity. Being filmed laughing while victims' names are being read, whatever the private joke, risks signalling indifference to a nation still marking the anniversary, and critics say public figures should simply hold their composure for the duration of such a ceremony regardless of what amused them.

The case against

Mamdani's defenders point out that he attended the ceremony at all despite a well-organised campaign, including a six-figure petition, urging him to stay away, and argue that showing up to honour the victims and their families is itself a meaningful act of respect. A brief, unguarded moment of laughter between two colleagues, caught on camera and stripped of whatever context prompted it, they say, is being used in bad faith by political opponents to manufacture outrage and question the sincerity of leaders whose politics they already oppose, rather than reflecting any genuine disrespect for the day.