The ramifications of the Trump era extend as far as the New York City subway car where Jordan Neely was put in a chokehold by Daniel Penny.
That’s according to author Anand Giridharadas, who likened the fatal incident that became a political lightning rod to a “story about everything in America” post Donald Trump’s first term, during an appearance on The Daily Beast Podcast.
Giridharadas spent three years reporting and writing “Man in the Mirror,” which details the circumstances leading up to Neely’s death, which occurred after Penny put him in a chokehold in a subway car in May 2023, and the subsequent criminal trial. A jury later acquitted Penny of all criminal charges.
“This is about fear and disorder and safety, and in some ways, the kind of inner life of an authoritarian age,” said Giridharadas. “The kind of political emotions of the Trump era that we’ve been living in.”
Neely, a 30-year-old, mentally ill, homeless Black man, was put in a chokehold by Penny, a white, then-24-year-old ex-Marine from a conservative Long Island suburb.
Neely was placed in the six-minute chokehold after he said, “someone is going to die today,” but no witness testified that Neely touched or made any move toward another passenger.
“You have in the case of Daniel Penny, comes from this town in Long Island called West Islip. That’s a kind of, you know, white bread, vanilla suburb in which I heard so many people talk about New York City’s dangerous, never go to that hellhole,” Giridharadas told host Joanna Coles.
“Daniel Penny comes out of that environment where in the evening news, the evening news is not about the town—the evening news is about how dangerous New York is 50 miles away,” he went on. “And you can imagine how that might have shaped him.”
The author described Penny’s interview with two detectives from the New York City Police Department, where he used “animalistic” language to describe Neely, referring to him as a “crackhead” numerous times. Neely was a street performer and Michael Jackson impersonator who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“There’s been a lot of social science in the Trump era about the use of animalistic language to describe people,” Giridharadas said. “These are not slips of the tongue.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Giridharadas’ characterization.
Penny, for his part, went on to become a martyr for Trump’s right wing. In 2024, he was a guest of Vice President JD Vance at the Army-Navy game in Landover, Maryland, where he was seen laughing with then-president-elect Trump and Vance.
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance wrote in an X post in December 2024.
“I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”
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