Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani will sit down Friday in a highly anticipated meeting between the upstart 34-year-old mayor-elect of New York and a president who sought to kneecap him during the campaign.
The White House and Mamdani’s team worked behind the scenes to secure a session between the two men, who will speak face-to-face for the first time. Trump announced the get-together Wednesday on social media, saying Mamdani, whom he again called a “communist,” would be coming to the Oval Office.
Trump frequently refers to Mamdani as a communist; Mamdani — a self-described democratic socialist — has rejected the label.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mamdani said he will “be ready for whatever happens” in his Oval Office meeting.
“I’m not concerned about this meeting. I view this meeting as an opportunity to make my case,” he said, adding, “It behooves me to leave no stone unturned in making the city more affordable.
“I have many disagreements with the president,” he continued. “And I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that can make our city affordable for every single New Yorker.”
Mamdani noted that it is customary for the incoming mayor of New York to meet with the president.
“For tens of thousands of New Yorkers, this meeting is between two very different candidates who they voted for for the same reason — they wanted a leader who would take on the cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
Mamdani defeated independent candidate Andrew Cuomo — whom Trump endorsed at the last minute — and Republican Curtis Sliwa, winning over a notable number of Trump supporters in the Nov. 4 election. NBC News exit polls found that 10% of New York City voters who cast ballots for Trump in last year’s presidential election voted for Mamdani.
Trump long sought to influence the mayoral race, even before he endorsed Cuomo. He told reporters that if Mamdani won he would withhold additional funding from New York City.
Asked Thursday whether there’s any chance Mamdani will be able to persuade Trump not to strip New York City of additional funding, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “We’ll see how the meeting goes tomorrow, and I’ll let the president speak for himself.”
She added that it “speaks volumes” that there will be a “communist coming to the White House, because that’s who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country.”
“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,” Leavitt said.
Trump, a native New Yorker who made his career in the city’s real estate scene, has hinted at a warmer approach to Mamdani in recent days. On Sunday, he said that Mamdani had expressed an interest in coming to Washington and that “we want to see everything work out well for New York.”
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani cast himself as the candidate who would most forcefully take on Trump while focusing on addressing cost-of-living issues in housing, child care and transportation.
In an interview with NBC News this month, Mamdani foreshadowed a willingness to work with Trump on affordability issues.
“My issue is not with people speaking with the president,” Mamdani said. “My issue is what they speak about.
“And so I’ll be there ready to have that conversation around cost of living, if the president ever wants to,” he said. “But if the president wants to have a conversation about hurting New Yorkers, about sending more ICE agents here to terrorize families, about cuts that we’ve seen, whether it be taking from the city budget or suspending funding for city schools or threatening $18 billion in infrastructure grants being withheld, that’s not something I’m going to go along with. That’s something that I’m going to fight.”
Mamdani took aim at Trump in his victory speech on election night.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said. “And if there’s any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.
“So Donald Trump,” he added, “since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
The crowd at Mamdani’s election night party then let out raucous cheers — and Trump took notice.
In an interview the next day with Fox News, Trump said he thought Mamdani delivered “a very angry speech.”
“Certainly angry toward me, and I think he should be nice to me,” Trump said. “You know, I’m the one who sort of has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he’s off to a bad start.”
Trump is coming face-to-face with Mamdani at a time when operatives and political leaders on the progressive left and the MAGA right seek to nationalize his image for the midterm elections and beyond, each seeing his story as having the ability to boost their electoral hopes.
There are similarities between the two men. Both New Yorkers entered primary contests as long shots or afterthoughts, barely registering in the polls, only to defeat the scions of political dynasties with innovative social media approaches and memorable messaging.
Asked whether Mamdani’s political rise mirrored his own, Trump told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” this month: “Well, I think I’m a much better-looking person than him, right?”