After weeks of traded insults, New York City’s newly elected democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and US President Donald Trump concluded their first in-person meeting on Friday. The duo praised each other and pledged cooperation, with the “America first” leader sounding unexpectedly impressed with the young New York politician.
Advertisement
“Some of his ideas are the same as my ideas,” Trump said after what may ultimately go down as one of the more unexpected political encounters of the decade.
“He wants to see housing go up, see a lot of housing created, apartments built … People would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing,” he added, saying “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him”.
The 34-year-old Mamdani made history earlier this month, becoming the first democratic socialist, the first Muslim and the youngest person ever elected mayor of New York City in a victory over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who earned Trump’s endorsement just days before the November 4 election.
Mamdani is scheduled to succeed Democratic incumbent Eric Adams on January 1, 2026.
In the tense lead-up to the meeting, Trump spent weeks criticising Mamdani as a “Marxist” and “communist”, accusing him of wanting to remake New York in the image of “Caracas with better bagels”. Mamdani, responding on election night, told the president, “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching … turn the volume up.”
Advertisement