President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani buried their proverbial hatchets on Friday, appearing together in the Oval Office after a meeting each described as the beginning of a warm relationship — despite months of slinging insults and bashing each other’s policies.
The two men who grew up in Queens looked into the news cameras and spoke about their shared hopes for New York, emphasized common populist ideals and pledged to work closely together, a sense of agreement that ran afoul of nearly everything their respective political bases have come to expect from them. The president even declared he would finally feel comfortable moving back to the city with the 34-year-old democratic socialist running city hall.
It was as if Trump, seated at the Resolute Desk, hadn’t just called Mamdani a “communist lunatic,” and Mamdani, now standing over his right shoulder, hadn’t recently referred to the president as a “despot.”
“I’ve been called much worse than a despot,” Trump explained, to a reporter who questioned the recent jab, in one of many questions about their past two disagreements that the two men shrugged off. “So it’s not that insulting.”
It was a remarkable scene that revealed the Republican president’s recognition of the political potency of Mamdani’s winning focus on economic policies that benefit the working class. And Mamdani, whose resounding victory Trump acknowledged, had clearly made efforts to flatter the president, conceding that a growing number of New Yorkers had supported Trump during the 2024 election.
“He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him,” Trump said. “And I’m OK with it.”
Mamdani, Trump explained, had shared some ideas “that were very interesting.”
“He wants to see houses go up, he wants to see a lot of houses created, a lot of apartments built, etc.” Trump said. “People would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing.”
Trump repeatedly stuck up for Mamdani as the mayor-elect faced pointed questions from the press corps, at one point urging him not to respond, and at another point defending the climate-conscious politician’s decision to take a plane, rather than a train or bus, to Washington.
“We agree on a lot more than I thought,” Trump said. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job.”
There were signs earlier in the day that the conversation might go this way.
Trump sought to tone down his harsh rhetoric about Mamdani ahead of the meeting, predicting during a Fox News interview Friday morning that it would “be quite civil.” When the host tried to bait Trump with a comment Mamdani had directed at the president, he acknowledged the smack talk had gone both ways.
“Well, I would say I’m a little hard, too, in all fairness,” Trump said, adding that Mamdani “ran a good race.” Trump endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) just before Election Day.
Mamdani explained this week that an Oval Office meeting is customary between the president and mayor of the nation’s largest city. But the stakes are high for New York. Trump throughout the mayoral race threatened to withhold federal funding for the city if Mamdani won — and even to have Mamdani prosecuted if he did not go along with the president’s agenda. Mamdani, meanwhile, is seeking to limit the Trump administration’s interference in his ability to execute on ambitious campaign promises like free child care and freezing rent prices.
Both political parties are wrestling with their identities ahead of the midterms and 2028 presidential election, though strategists on both sides are aware that economic relief remains voters top priority. Mamdani was kept at arms’ length by prominent fellow Democrats nationwide, who believe that socialist ideals will be off-putting for swing voters despite a focus on affordability. And despite Trump and other conservatives warning of the ruinous effects of progressive governance, populist voices in the Republican Party have claimed the GOP isn’t doing enough to keep the working-class voters who joined Trump’s coalition.
Trump has repeatedly referred to the mayor-elect as a “communist,” a description White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed Thursday. Mamdani identifies as a democratic socialist, a wing of the Democratic Party focused on drastically reducing economic inequality.
While Trump has signaled that he believes Mamdani’s brand of progressive politics will be a turnoff to swing voters during the midterms, other Republicans — even officials in the White House — have acknowledged that Mamdani’s laser focus on economic issues has resonated with many people. James Blair, the White House’s deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs, said in an interview with Politico earlier this month that Mamdani did “so well” because “he relentlessly focused on affordability.”
“People talk about communists, they can say all these things, but the fact is he was talking about the cost of living,” Blair said.
Two months ahead of his killing, top Trump ally and conservative influencer Charlie Kirk told The Washington Post in July that the Republican Party would have to improve its own economic policies to appeal to young voters, warning about the “Mamdani effect” that could cost conservatives the gains they made with Gen Z during the 2024 election, believing that many young voters would be attracted to pledges like those made by Mamdani to make everyday life more affordable.
The president has also leaned into “birther” conspiracies in talking about the mayor-elect that resemble Trump’s attempted smears against Barack Obama, suggesting falsely that Mamdani, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Uganda, is “here illegally.” Trump this year also suggested arresting Mamdani if he tried to prevent federal immigration agents from conducting raids in New York City.
The president, who was raised in Queens and launched his real estate development career in Manhattan, called New York home for most of his life until officially making Palm Beach, Florida, his primary residence in 2019. At the time, the president announced he made the decision after being “treated very badly by the political leaders in New York.
Mamdani’s meeting was the latest example of high-profile Democrats who have visited the Oval Office this year, meetings where the officials have had to walk a tightrope of establishing goodwill with and seeking favorable outcomes from the president, while proving to their anti-Trump political bases that they stood up to him.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this spring compared her meeting with Trump to the movie Rambo, stating she “didn’t draw first blood,” while Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faced embarrassment from her liberal base after the White House called her in to the Oval Office at the same time Trump had staged a photo op signing an executive order targeting political enemies. At one point, she was photographed covering her face with file folders.
And last month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, both Democrats from New York were photographed in the Oval Office next to “Trump 2028” caps and the president grinning and pointing, a sight Trump and Republicans mocked after the fact. The two Democrats were there with Republican congressional leadership in an effort to reach a deal to stop a government shutdown, though the two sides failed to come to a consensus during the meeting. Trump later posted an AI-doctored video of Schumer and Jeffries speaking to press outside the White House.
This is a developing article. It will be updated.
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