For months, Donald Trump warned New Yorkers against electing Zohran Mamdani as mayor, referring to him as a “communist lunatic.” Mamdani, meanwhile, called Trump a “despot.”
All of that was put aside in an extraordinary Oval Office get-together Friday, the first face-to-face meeting between the two men.
Trump, who sought to kneecap Mamdani during the campaign, was exceedingly complimentary of the self-described democratic socialist, while Mamdani repeatedly talked up his hope that he and the president could work together to lower costs for New Yorkers.
“I met with a man who’s a very rational person,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office following the private Friday afternoon meeting. “I met with a man who ... really wants to see New York be great again.”
“I’ll really be cheering for him,” Trump added.
Standing alongside the president, Mamdani described the meeting as “productive” and “focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.”
When asked by a reporter, Trump even said he would be comfortable living in New York City with Mamdani as mayor, saying they had more in common than he had expected.
“Yeah, I would, especially after the meeting,” Trump said. “Absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would’ve thought. I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job.”
Trump now resides in Florida but is a native New Yorker who made his name in the city’s real estate scene.
The president opened his remarks by congratulating Mamdani on his victory and for running “an incredible race against a lot of smart people.” The president added that the two men discussed housing, food and energy costs.
“I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor,” Trump said. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true — having a strong and very safe New York.”
Mamdani noted while speaking to reporters on Thursday that it is customary for the incoming mayor of New York to meet with the president.
“We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities, we spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out,” Mamdani said on Friday. “And I appreciated the time with the president. I appreciated the conversation. I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers.”
Reached after the meeting, a senior White House official said the discussion “couldn’t have gone better!”
Mamdani defeated independent candidate Andrew Cuomo — whom Trump endorsed at the last minute — and Republican Curtis Sliwa, winning over a notable number of Trump supporters in the Nov. 4 election. NBC News exit polls found that 10% of New York City voters who cast ballots for Trump in last year’s presidential election voted for Mamdani.
“A lot of my voters actually voted for” Mamdani, Trump said on Friday. “One in 10, and I’m OK with that.”
The two men also addressed the harsh rhetoric they lobbed at each other. Asked about calling Trump a “despot” who is seeking to enact a fascist agenda, Mamdani said the two men were “very clear about our positions and our views.”
“And what I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many,” but “on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Trump interjected, saying he has been “called much worse than a despot.”
“It’s not that insulting,” he continued.
Later, when Mamdani was pressed on whether he thinks Trump is a fascist, the president cut in at the start of the mayor-elect’s answer to tell him, “You can just say yes, it’s easier than explaining.”
Trump long sought to influence the mayoral race, even before he endorsed Cuomo. He told reporters that if Mamdani won, he would withhold additional funding from New York City. But Trump suggested Friday he was not keen to pull new funding from the city.
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“I think if we didn’t get along, whether it’s cut off or just make it a little bit difficult, or not give as much ... I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Trump said, adding: “We had a meeting today that actually surprised me. He wants to see no crime. He wants to see housing being built. He wants to see rents coming down. All things that I agree with. Now, we may disagree how we get there.”
Trump praised Mamdani for wanting to build more housing in the city.
“He agrees with that, and so do I,” Trump said, adding, “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him. A big help, because I want New York City to be great. Look, I love New York City. It’s where I came from. I spent a lot of years there.”
Trump had hinted at a warmer approach to Mamdani in recent days. On Sunday, he said that Mamdani had expressed an interest in coming to Washington and that “we want to see everything work out well for New York.”
The two men privately told reporters that they bonded over a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mamdani said he was able to discuss an appreciation for the president and for the New Deal he enacted amid the Great Depression, drawing a through line to present day efforts to bring costs down in New York City.
“We have a great portrait of FDR that I found in the vaults that was missing for years,” Trump said. “I found it, and I put it up. He’s a Democrat. To the best of my knowledge, he’s a Democrat. And when the mayor saw that portrait, he said, ‘Sir, do you mind if I have a picture taken.’ ... It’s an amazing portrait. The picture comes out good, but it’s an amazing portrait in the Cabinet Room. So he’s a big fan of the New Deal, I guess.”
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani cast himself as the candidate who would most forcefully take on Trump while focusing on addressing cost-of-living issues in housing, child care and transportation.
In an interview with NBC News this month, Mamdani foreshadowed a willingness to work with Trump on affordability issues.
“My issue is not with people speaking with the president,” Mamdani said. “My issue is what they speak about.”
“And so I’ll be there ready to have that conversation around cost of living, if the president ever wants to,” he said. “But if the president wants to have a conversation about hurting New Yorkers, about sending more ICE agents here to terrorize families, about cuts that we’ve seen, whether it be taking from the city budget or suspending funding for city schools or threatening $18 billion in infrastructure grants being withheld, that’s not something I’m going to go along with. That’s something that I’m going to fight.”
Both Trump and Mamdani said they discussed crime in New York City more than immigration enforcement. Mamdani said his constituents have concerns over how immigration laws are being enforced under Trump. The president, meanwhile, added that both men “don’t want to see crime” and praised Mamdani for keeping Jessica Tisch as the city’s police commissioner.
“I have very little doubt that we’re not going to get along on that issue,” Trump said. “And he said some things that were very interesting, very interesting as to housing construction. And wants to see houses go up. He wants to see a lot of houses created, a lot of apartments built.”
The tone was far different than even just weeks prior, including when Mamdani took aim at Trump in his victory speech on election night.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said. “And if there’s any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.”
“So, Donald Trump,” he added, “since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
The crowd at Mamdani’s election-night party then let out raucous cheers — and Trump took notice.
In an interview the next day with Fox News, Trump said he thought Mamdani delivered “a very angry speech.”
“Certainly angry toward me, and I think he should be nice to me,” Trump said. “You know, I’m the one who sort of has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he’s off to a bad start.”
Trump is coming face-to-face with Mamdani at a time when operatives and political leaders on the progressive left and the MAGA right seek to nationalize his image for the midterm elections and beyond, each seeing in his story the ability to boost their electoral hopes.
There are similarities between the two men. Both New Yorkers entered primary contests as long shots or afterthoughts, barely registering in the polls, only to defeat the scions of political dynasties with innovative social media approaches and memorable messaging.
Asked whether Mamdani’s political rise mirrored his own, Trump told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” this month: “Well, I think I’m a much better-looking person than him, right?”
