In many respects — from their backgrounds and policy positions to their ages — President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani are starkly different. Yet the parallels in how both men built their political appeal set the stage for their first face-to-face meeting in the Oval Office on Friday.
In a remarkable shift from the months of public insults exchanged between them, the two leaders set aside past tensions and met cordially, shaking hands and offering mutual praise. Trump described the meeting as “very productive” and said it “surprised” him in a positive way, NBC News reported.
“We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” said Trump, who grew up in New York City and began his business and real estate empire there.
Trump and Mamdani struck a conciliatory tone, downplaying their policy disagreements and emphasizing areas where they share common objectives — including tackling affordability issues, supporting efforts toward peace in the Middle East, and working toward what they described as the best outcomes for New York City, NBC noted.
“There were more New Yorkers who voted for President Trump in the most recent presidential election because of that focus on cost of living. And I’m looking forward to working together to deliver that affordability agenda,” Mamdani said, adding that perhaps 1 in 10 of his voters supported Trump in the 2024 election.
When reporters inquired about the previous attacks exchanged between them, both politicians dismissed the questions.
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“I’ve been called worse than a despot,” Trump quipped in response to past comments from the mayor-elect.
In the past, Trump had threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City over Mamdani’s stated socialist policy objectives, but the president downplayed that during their Oval Office meeting on Friday: “I don’t think that’s gonna happen. … I expect to be helping him, not hurting him.”
The cordial meeting marked a sharp departure from the combative tone both men adopted during the lead-up to this month’s mayoral election. Trump had labeled Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a “communist” and issued a last-minute endorsement for his opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani, for his part, criticized the administration as “authoritarian” and used his victory speech to pointedly address Trump, urging him to “turn the volume up.”
Mamdani’s “affordability-centric message has already inspired Democrats to follow a similar path heading into next year’s midterms. He publicly discouraged an ally who launched a primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — one of the party leaders who was slow to embrace Mamdani’s candidacy,” NBC noted.
But Mamdani’s socialist tendencies are not conducive to the kinds of pro-growth measures needed to sustain economies, critics – including Trump – have warned. And many of his policies including free public buses, government-run grocery stores, and taxing high-income New Yorkers more, have drawn the ire of many in the state, including Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has public rebuked is bus and tax plans.
Still, Trump’s meeting with Mamdani went better than many expected.
“I met with a man who’s a very rational person. I met with a man who wants to see – really wants to see – New York be great again,” said Trump, who was born in Queens, N.Y., the same borough that Mamdani partially represented in the State Assembly. “I’ll be cheering for him.”
“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,” Trump said, while acknowledging that the two leaders “may disagree how we get there.”
“I enjoyed our conversation and I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in response.
