WASHINGTON — After months of buying and selling insults, U.S. President Donald Trump and incoming New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani smiled at one another, swapped compliments and pledged to collaborate on tackling crime and affordability within the nation’s greatest metropolis at an unexpectedly pleasant assembly on the White Home, Friday.
The political opposites — a Republican billionaire and a younger democratic socialist — have clashed on all the pieces from immigration to financial coverage. But it surely was clear the 2 cast a rapport of their first encounter. Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker, stood by Trump’s desk because the 79-year-old president smiled up at him and patted him warmly on the arm, having solely not too long ago falsely caricatured Mamdani as an antisemitic communist, amongst different jibes.
“We agree on much more than I’d have thought,” Trump mentioned after letting journalists and cameras into the Oval Workplace on the finish of a personal assembly with the mayor-elect. “Now we have one factor in frequent: We would like this metropolis of ours that we like to do very properly.”
The assembly within the Oval Workplace, the place Trump has generally embarrassed or chastised visiting heads of state, far exceeded Trump’s prediction earlier Friday that it might be “fairly cordial.”
The boys, two totally different generations of New Yorkers, introduced nothing new on coverage besides what gave the impression to be the launch of an sudden, politics-shifting skilled friendship.
“What I actually recognize concerning the president is that the assembly that we had centered not on locations of disagreement, which there are lots of, and in addition centered on the shared function that we’ve in serving New Yorkers,” Mamdani mentioned.
Simply 26 % of Individuals say Trump is doing a superb job at managing the price of residing, in accordance with a Reuters/Ipsos ballot. In the meantime, Mamdani, promising a freeze on rents and free buses and childcare, was considered one of a slew of Democratic victors across the nation in elections earlier this month. It was among the many most deflating nights endured by Republicans this 12 months, and Trump had not been anticipated to benefit from the reminder by a go to by one of the vital outstanding Democratic winners.
But the president, who discovered his fame as a New York actual property developer, brightened at Mamdani’s name for extra housing within the metropolis he’ll lead from January 1. Trump was cheered to listen to a piece of New Yorkers who voted for him in final 12 months’s presidential election had gone on to vote for Mamdani. “After we spoke to these voters who voted for President Trump, we heard them converse of the price of residing,” Mamdani mentioned. Trump, who says he’s paying growing consideration to affordability and inflation, mentioned this made sense to him: “A few of his concepts are the identical concepts I’ve,” Trump defined. “The higher he does, the happier I’m.”
Mamdani, Trump snort off their previous insults
As Mamdani surged within the polls to victory November 4, Trump issued threats to strip federal funding from New York Metropolis. Mamdani has often criticized Trump’s promise to ramp up federal immigration enforcement efforts in a metropolis the place 4 in 10 residents are foreign-born. Within the weeks earlier than they met, Trump had labeled Mamdani a “radical left lunatic,” a communist and a “Jew hater.” Mamdani has espoused Nordic-style democratic socialism, not communism. Whereas a staunch critic of Israel, he was endorsed by outstanding Jewish politicians, is bringing Jewish employees into his new administration, notably New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and has repeatedly condemned antisemitism.
And but, lower than an hour after first assembly one another in particular person, Trump was repeatedly coming to Mamdani’s assist to fend off pointed questions from the press. The pair laughed away a few of their spicier insults as reporters reminded them of what that they had mentioned about one another.
“I have been known as a lot worse than a despot,” Trump mentioned with a smile. “So it is not that insulting, however I feel he’ll change his thoughts after we get to working collectively.” Mamdani was requested if he nonetheless thought-about Trump a fascist. “That is OK, you possibly can simply say ‘sure’,” Trump interjected, swapping grins with Mamdani and patting his arm twice. “It is simpler than explaining it.”
Trump defends Mamdani as ‘a really rational particular person’
Trump additionally defended the Uganda-born Mamdani, who might be New York Metropolis’s first Muslim mayor, from a few of the Islamophobic slurs he has confronted. One reporter requested Trump if he believed he had “a jihadist” standing by him.
“No, I do not,” Trump mentioned as Mamdani appeared on. “I met with a person who’s a really rational particular person.” Some politicians and commentators had been discombobulated by the televised friendliness. No less than a few Republicans mentioned they nonetheless didn’t belief Mamdani, Trump’s new approval however. “What the heck simply occurred?” U.S. Consultant Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, wrote on social media, sharing a clip of one of many assembly’s Trump-Mamdani buddy moments.
Trump had repeatedly urged New Yorkers to not vote for Mamdani, warning it might be a catastrophe for a metropolis that’s already portrayed as a crime-ridden hellscape by conservative media, regardless of being among the many most secure large cities within the nation. After his first time period as president, Trump decamped from Manhattan to turn into a Florida resident.
A reporter requested Trump if he would think about transferring again to town of his start with Mamdani working it.
“Yeah, I’d,” Trump mentioned, “particularly after the assembly.”
