'I'll be cheering for him': Trump has 'great' meeting with NYC mayor-elect Mamdani

It was, perhaps, the warmest reception by Donald Trump yet for a political figure diametrically opposed to his policies. The US president has called New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a "communist," a "jihadist", and a "Jew-hater". 

Mamdani has called Trump a "despot" and a "fascist". 

But at their highly anticipated meeting at the White House on Friday, Trump lavished unexpected praise on Mamdani after their first-ever face-to-face discussion, which lasted some 40 minutes.

"I'll be cheering for him," Trump told reporters gathered around his desk, where he sat with Mamdani standing to his right. 

"Some of my views have changed, and we had discussions on some things - I'm not going to discuss what they are - but I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he's going to surprise some conservative people, actually." 

Asked whether he still thinks Mamdani is a "communist", Trump responded that "we all change," and that he no longer sees him as a "jihadist". 

When Mamdani was pressed on whether he still thinks Trump is a "despot", the president interjected with a smile and said, "I've been called much worse than a despot." 

And as to whether Mamdani still believes Trump is a "fascist", the president again jumped in with a chuckle and said, "That's ok, you can say it. It's easier. It's easier than explaining." 

Mamdani gave a smile and a nod. 

The meeting was dotted with several moments throughout where the press put Mamdani on the spot about some of his more hostile statements towards the president, resulting in Trump cutting the tension by speaking for Mamdani to bring the briefing back to a more conciliatory tone.

Mamdani on message

Mamdani hardly strayed off-message, sticking to his campaign pledge of affordability. 

"I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views. And what I really appreciate about the president is the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement - of which there are many - it focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers," Mamdani said.

"And frankly, that is something that could transform the lives of eight and a half million people who are currently struggling under a cost-of-living crisis, with one in four living in poverty." 

One reporter asked Mamdani, "Does New York City love President Trump?" Staying on message, Mamdani replied with, "New York City loves a future that is affordable."

The Uganda-born Mamdani, who will be sworn in on 1 January as the first Muslim mayor of the largest and arguably most influential city in the country, pointed to the overlap among voters who supported him earlier this month and also supported Trump one year ago. 

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"I shared with President Trump that when I spoke to Trump voters on Hillside Avenue, including one of whom was a pharmacist that spoke about how President Trump's father actually went to that pharmacy... [he said] that people were tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars," Mamdani said.

"And I also believe that we have to follow through on the international human rights, and I know that still today, those are being violated, and that continues to be work that has to be done," he said in reference to a question from MTV Lebanon's correspondent, Anthony Merchak, about whether he undermined Trump's landmark Gaza ceasefire deal. 

Merchak also asked Mamdani why he accused "the US government of committing genocide in Gaza?"

"I've spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide, and I've spoken about our government funding it, and I shared with the president in our meeting about the concerns," Mamdani quickly fired back.

Trump delighted in sharing with reporters that he and Mamdani do, in fact, share the same voters in some parts, given the president's own campaign pledge of lowering the price of groceries and bringing "peace in the Middle East". 

This was despite pushback from several reporters who repeatedly pointed out the differences between the two men, including a question from right-wing activist Jack Posobiec that Mamdani's tax hikes on the rich would specifically target "white people". 

"No, we intend to create a fair property tax system," Mamdani countered. 

"I am very much interested in property tax reform, because what we see right now in New York City is a system that is so inequitable that it can't even stand up in court."

"Would you feel comfortable living in New York City under a Mamdani administration, especially after the meeting?" another reporter asked the president.

"Absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought," Trump responded. 

"I expect to be helping, not hurting him," Trump said of his previous threats to withhold funding to his hometown of New York City if Mamdani won. "But I really think he has a chance to do a great job." 

Competing populisms

Trump's willingness to meet in the first place may have signalled an effort to capture and build on some of Mamdani's populism, given he was a virtual unknown just one year ago, and has focused on delivering solutions to voters, much like Trump's own presidential campaign. 

Trump outlined how impressed he had been that Mamdani went from polling in single digits to becoming the mayor.

Last month, in an interview with the CBS programme 60 Minutes, Trump was asked about his similarities with Mamdani. 

"Some people have compared him to a left-wing version of you. Charismatic, breaking the old rules. What do you think about that?" CBS correspondent Norah O'Donnell said. 

"Well, I think I'm a much better-looking person than him, right?" Trump countered. 

"If you have a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there," he added of the federal funds that get allocated to states by the White House. 

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The president has long insisted that he believes anyone who calls themselves a socialist is, in fact, a "communist". 

"It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House, because that's who the Democratic Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday.

"I think it's very telling, but I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what's right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states or blue cities in a city that's becoming much more left than I think this president ever anticipated in his many years of living in New York." 

The website for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), of which Mamdani is a member, says it stands for "a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society" and to "collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation". 

Earlier this week, Mamdani indicated to Zeteo's Mehdi Hassan that both Trump's victory and his own have shown that the establishment Democrats who make up what is largely a centrist party are falling into irrelevance - something the president may very well agree on. 

"When Trump won the presidency, there were many articles written [that were] obituaries about the Democratic Party's ability to engage with young voters, with young men, with Asian voters. And what we showed, in fact, is that these same constituencies that we had been told were potentially forever leaving the party could, in fact, be the foundations of a campaign at the heart of the party to win it back," Mamdani said.