President Donald Trump and incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are set to meet at the White House on Friday—a highly anticipated meeting between two influential political figures who have publicly clashed for months.
Both politicians indicated earlier this week that they hoped to meet, and the President confirmed they soon would in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening.
“Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani, has asked for a meeting,” Trump wrote. “We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st. Further details to follow!”
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Mamdani is not a communist, but a Democratic socialist.
Trump and Mamdani have sparred in the lead-up to and aftermath of the New York City mayoral election. Mamdani, a state assemblymember who went into the Democratic primary as an underdog but clinched the nomination over the summer in a stunning political upset over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo before going on to best Cuomo again in the general election earlier this month, said during the campaign that he would be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.” He blasted the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, vowing that if elected mayor he would use his power to “stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors.”
Trump, meanwhile, has called Mamdani “a 100% Communist lunatic” and alluded to false claims that he is in the country “illegally” (Mamdani was born in Uganda, moved to the U.S. as a child, and became a naturalized American citizen in 2018). Trump also threatened to “arrest” Mamdani if he defied immigration enforcement agents, prompting Mamdani to denounce the President’s remarks, saying, “His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you.”
The night before the November election, Trump endorsed Cuomo, saying in a Truth Social post, “I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE.” The President said at the time that if Mamdani won the election, “it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required” to the city.
Mamdani, in turn, jabbed 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. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power,” the mayor-elect said, adding, “So Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
Despite those tensions, Mamdani told MS NOW in an interview on Wednesday night that his team reached out to the White House for a meeting “because of a commitment that I made to New Yorkers that I would be willing to meet with anyone and everyone, so long as it was to the benefit of the 8.5 million people who call the city home and their struggle to afford the most expensive city in the United States of America.”
The White House declined to comment on what the President plans to discuss with Mamdani, directing TIME to Trump’s Truth Social post. Mamdani’s press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But a spokesperson for Mamdani told the New York Times that the mayor-elect meeting with the President is “customary,” and that Mamdani plans to discuss issues including “public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over one million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago.”
Here’s what to know about how the two politicians have clashed over those issues.
Public safety
Mamdani faced criticism during his campaign for his previous calls to defund the New York Police Department (NYPD), which he in the past referred to as a “racist, anti-queer and major threat to public safety.” In the lead-up to the election, he walked back some of those comments, publicly apologizing to the NYPD and saying that he is “looking to work with these officers” who “put their lives on the line every single day.” He has, though, called for the creation of a New York City Department of Public Safety to respond to mental health crises, saying that the city is relying too heavily on the NYPD for those types of situations.
The Trump Administration, meanwhile, has launched aggressive policing and immigration enforcement efforts in a number of cities, deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Chicago. Trump has threatened to send troops to other cities, too, including New York City.
Mamdani has vowed to “Trump-proof” the city, saying he will fight back against the President’s attacks on immigrants.
Economic security and affordability
Much of Mamdani’s campaign platform was focused on affordability, including proposals to freeze rent in the city, make city buses free, create city-owned grocery stores focused on “keeping prices low, not making a profit,” and expanding free childcare for New Yorkers.
The night before the election, Trump alluded to Mamdani’s economic proposals in his post endorsing Cuomo.
“It is my strong conviction that New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win,” the President said on Truth Social. “His principles have been tested for over a thousand years, and never once have they been successful.”
How the meeting could go
It’s unclear what the tone of the meeting will be, but both Trump and Mamdani indicated this week that they are open to having a discussion.
“We want to see everything work out well for New York,” the President told reporters on Sunday.
“I want to just speak plainly to the President about what it means to actually stand up for New Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city,” Mamdani told MS NOW on Wednesday.
The post Trump and Mamdani to Meet Friday: Here’s What to Expect appeared first on TIME.
