President Donald Trump will meet with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Friday after months of name-calling and threats against the 34-year-old democratic socialist, who has vowed to resist his agenda.
“We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st,” Trump said in a social media post Wednesday evening.
Mamdani’s campaign confirmed the meeting. “As is customary for an incoming mayoral administration, the Mayor-elect plans to meet with the President in Washington to discuss public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over one million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago,” Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said in a statement.
Earlier in the week, Trump had signaled his intention to meet with Mamdani, telling reporters on Sunday night, “We’ll work something out.”
Mamdani will be sworn in as New York’s first Muslim mayor on Jan. 1.
Trump waded into the New York mayoral race by endorsing one of Mamdani’s opponents, former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo — a Democrat who ran as an independent. The president has kept up a relentless line of attack on Mamdani over his policy positions, which include free city bus services, freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments, launching city-owned grocery stores and free early child care.
Ahead of the mayoral election, Trump also threatened to cut funding to New York and “take over” the city in the event of a Mamdani victory. Trump wields considerable influence over federal dollars going to New York City, where the 2026 operating budget relies on $7.4 billion in federal funding, The Washington Post has reported.
Previously, Trump threatened to arrest Mamdani if he were to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in New York. He has variously called Mamdani “terrible,” “bad news” and a “total nutjob.”
Mamdani has also faced a barrage of Islamophobic attacks and baseless questions about his citizenship status from some Trump supporters and Republican lawmakers — including from Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tennessee), who referred to Mamdani as “little muhammad,” called for him to be deported and asked the Justice Department to investigate him earlier this year.
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to parents of Indian origin. The family moved to New York City when Mamdani was 7, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018.
Mamdani has not backed down in the face of Trump’s insults and threats. In his victory speech, Mamdani said New York can become a model for how to defeat Trump “by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.”
“So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up,” he said.
He has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s agenda, especially an immigration crackdown that has targeted Democratic-led cities. In his first news conferenceafter being elected, Mamdani said he would address the “twin crises” of “an authoritarian administration and an affordability crisis.”
Recently, Mamdani said he would contact the White House as he prepares to take office, emphasizing his responsibility to work collaboratively, even with political adversaries.
“I’ll say that I’m here to work for the benefit of everyone who calls the city home, and that wherever there is a possibility for working together toward that end, I’m ready,” Mamdani told NBC New York last week. “And if it’s to the expense of those New Yorkers, I will fight it.”
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