AFTER months spent trading barbs, U.S. President Donald Trump and New York City’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, appeared to set aside their animosity during an unexpectedly friendly meeting at the White House on Friday, smiling for cameras and promising to work together on crime and the soaring cost of living.
Reuters reported on Saturday that the pair — a 79-year-old Republican billionaire and a 34-year-old democratic socialist — have clashed over immigration, economic direction and almost every ideological dividing line between them, yet seemed to forge a rapport in their first face-to-face encounter.
Mamdani stood beside the Resolute Desk as Trump patted his arm warmly, despite having caricatured him only weeks earlier as a “communist” and worse. Trump told reporters: “We agreed on a lot more than I thought. We have one thing in common: we want this city of ours that we love to do very well.”
The Oval Office meeting, a room where Trump has alternated between embracing visitors and publicly chastising them, was markedly warmer than even he had predicted when he said earlier in the day it would be “quite cordial”.
“What I really appreciate about the president is that 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. Trump, in turn, declared he was happy to look past partisan divides: “The better he does the happier I am.”
The thaw comes after a combative election season in which Trump threatened to strip federal funding from New York City, while the mayor-elect criticised federal immigration crackdowns in a metropolis where nearly 40 per cent of residents are foreign-born.
Trump had heightened tensions by labelling him a “radical left lunatic,” a communist and a “Jew hater,” providing no evidence.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has condemned antisemitism and appointed several Jewish officials including incoming Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, dismissed such claims.
Reporters at the White House recited some of the pair’s sharper jabs, prompting Trump to quip: “I’ve been called much worse than a despot. So, it’s not that insulting, but I think he’ll change his mind after we get to working together.”
The meeting also saw Trump push back against Islamophobic insinuations directed at Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and is set to become New York’s first Muslim mayor. Asked whether he believed he had “a jihadist” standing beside him, Trump replied: “No, I don’t. I met with a man who was a very rational person.”
Mamdani’s modern, social media-driven campaign has sparked wider national debate within the Democratic Party, now out of federal power and deeply divided ideologically but broadly united in opposition to Trump, who cannot seek another term in 2028.
The mayor-elect said affordability would be his central focus, from housing and groceries to childcare and public transport, in a city where rents are nearly twice the national average. Inflation remains a political vulnerability for Trump, who earned only 26 per cent approval on handling the cost of living in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.
New York City is due to receive $7.4 billion in federal support in fiscal 2026, around 6.4 per cent of its spending, though it remains unclear what legal basis Trump could invoke to withhold any congressionally mandated funds.
Despite previously warning New Yorkers that Mamdani’s election would be a disaster for what conservative media often portray as a crime-ridden city — despite its ranking among the safest large cities in the country — Trump struck a more conciliatory note after their meeting.
Asked whether he might even return to live in his native city under Mamdani’s leadership, Trump replied: “Yeah, I would, especially after the meeting.” - November 22, 2025
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