By Emma G. Fitzsimmons
President Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, put on a remarkable display of bonhomie in the Oval Office, with Trump showering praise on the democratic socialist and promising to help him succeed. Just weeks ago, Trump was warning New York voters that electing Mamdani would amount to an existential threat to the nation’s largest city. “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him — a big help,” Trump said, adding, “I think this mayor can do some things that are going to be really great.”
For his part, Mamdani, who had vowed on the campaign trail to stand up to the president, called their meeting “productive” and said that he looked forward to working with Trump to improve life in New York. Trump and Mamdani, who had lobbed labels like “communist” and “despot” at each other during a mayoral campaign filled with vitriol, nodded approvingly as each spoke and struck an optimistic tone with reporters. But they also sidestepped questions that might have highlighted their most polarising positions. “What I really appreciate about the president is the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
For Trump, the public rapprochement was an opportunity to align himself with a charismatic young politician who has tapped into many of the same economic concerns that have animated the president’s base. It also comes after Democrats seized on the issue of affordability, which powered them to electoral victories this month. Since then, Trump and his allies have sought to frame the GOP as the party addressing high costs.
For Mamdani, the high-stakes trip to the White House, which has bedevilled multiple foreign leaders, could be hugely consequential for the nation’s largest city, as could his relationship with the president in the coming months. Many New Yorkers have worried that Trump would send the National Guard into the city shortly after Mamdani takes office on Jan. 1 or that the president would try to punish the city in other ways. Mamdani seemed to have defused that threat — for now. “The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump said on Friday.
The two leaders met for roughly 45 minutes, and Mamdani also received a tour of the West Wing. It included a visit to the Cabinet Room, where he and Trump posed in front of a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and to the newly installed “Presidential Walk of Fame” on the West Colonnade. Aides to the president said Trump was committed to having a successful meeting with Mamdani, speaking approvingly of him in private over the past two days, according to people who spoke with him.
The president took steps to ensure the meeting was successful. Unlike his sessions with foreign leaders, some of which have turned contentious, Trump did not invite the media into the Oval Office until after the meeting concluded. Earlier on Friday, he praised Mamdani during an interview with Fox News Radio. Mamdani’s allies on the left were cautiously optimistic about the meeting, hoping that he might have prevented some attacks on the city. Trump’s Republican allies were less positive. Some of them said they disagreed with the president’s approach and wished he had been more confrontational about Mamdani’s criticism of Israel.
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and moved to New York City as a boy, has been a forceful critic of Trump’s immigration policies. In March, Mamdani confronted Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, in a video that went viral, shouting at him while being held back by state troopers. Mamdani told reporters on Friday that he had expressed concerns to Trump about immigration raids, including a recent one involving a mother and her children.
Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani’s closest adviser, said on NY1 as she left the White House that “we were very heartened” by the meeting and having an opportunity to discuss the city’s affordability crisis. At the same time, she said they were “clear about our disagreements in the room,” including expressing concerns about immigration raids. Although his public posture was quite a change for the president, Trump has privately complimented Mamdani in recent weeks. Still, the president’s genial tone was an especially stark contrast with Trump’s comments on Thursday, when he attacked a group of Democratic lawmakers and said their behavior was “punishable by death.” “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said about Mamdani. Trump also praised Mamdani’s campaign — after endorsing his opponent — and marveled at the immense media interest in their meeting.
At multiple points during the meeting, Trump jumped in to defend Mamdani from pointed questions from reporters. The president patted Mamdani on the arm when he was asked by a reporter if Trump was a fascist. Mamdani smiled awkwardly, and the president advised him to just say yes.
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