WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump gave a warm greeting to incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday, praising his electoral victory in the first in-person meeting for the political opposites, who have clashed over everything from immigration to economic policy.
A democratic socialist and little-known state lawmaker who won New York’s mayoral race earlier this month, Mamdani requested the sit-down with Trump to discuss cost-of-living issues and public safety.
After months of trading barbs and insults in the media, the mayor-elect and the president appeared to put aside their differences and quickly strike a rapport in the Oval Office, a setting that Trump has sometimes used to embarrass heads of state.
“We agreed on a lot more than I thought,” Trump said after inviting journalists into the Oval Office following a private meeting. “We have one thing in common: we want this city of ours that we love to do very well.”
Sitting at his desk, Trump smiled up at Mamdani, who stood to the president’s right, and offered his congratulations on winning the mayoral election earlier this month: “He really ran an incredible race against some very tough people, very smart people.”
“It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City, and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Trump said he was happy to put aside partisan differences. “The better he does the happier I am,” Trump said.
As Mamdani surged in the polls to victory, Trump, a Republican, issued threats to strip federal funding from the biggest US city. The mayor-elect has regularly criticized a range of Trump’s policies, including plans to ramp up federal immigration enforcement efforts in New York City, where four in ten residents are foreign-born.
The 79-year-old president, a former New York resident, has labeled Mamdani, 34, as a “radical left lunatic,” a communist and “Jew hater,” without offering evidence for those assertions.
Mamdani has espoused Nordic-style democratic socialism, not communism. While a staunch critic of Israel, he was endorsed by prominent Jewish politicians, is bringing in Jewish staff in his new administration, notably New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and has repeatedly condemned antisemitism.
Trump tempered his language on Friday shortly before the mayor-elect’s arrival, saying he expected it to be “quite civil” and commending Mamdani for a “successful run.”
“I was hitting him a little hard,” Trump told “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News. “I think we’ll get along fine. Look, we’re looking for the same thing: we want to make New York strong.”
Earlier, Mamdani posted a grinning selfie on social media, taken in the seat of a plane bound for Washington.
