Lessons learned from Trump’s surprisingly cordial meeting with Mamdani

US President Donald Trump’s fight at the White House against newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was billed as the political showdown of the year, but instead turned into a praise fest.

The self-described Democratic socialist mayor called Trump a “tyrant” during his election victory speech.

And before Friday’s meeting, the president’s spokesman condemned Mamdani’s visit as a “communist coming to the White House.”

However, the two men standing side by side in the President’s office showed a surprisingly conciliatory tone.

Both reiterated their shared interest in solving New York City’s affordability crisis. They smiled often, and Trump even seemed amused when reporters asked him about Mamdani’s political attacks on him.

The tone of the meeting seemed to surprise political observers, but it provided a sign that both men understood that solving the affordability crisis was critical to political success.

It remains to be seen whether the ceasefire will last even after Mamdani takes office on January 1.

Until then, President Trump said, “I will be rooting for him.”

The relationship between the two was evident from the moment they began being interviewed by the media.

Facing the press after the closed-door meeting, Mamdani stood to President Trump’s right with his hands clasped while the president sat behind a resolute desk. Their body language was relaxed. Trump’s body language, in particular, was relaxed.

Trump not only refrained from attacking Mamdani, but also praised him several times.

The president said he hoped Mamdani would be a “really great mayor.”

The president later added, “I’m confident he can do a very good job.”

Mamdani and Trump have traded political barbs throughout the mayoral campaign. A reporter in the room Friday reminded the pair that Trump had called Mamdani a “communist” and that Mamdani had called the president a “tyrant.”

Both dodged several questions about their previous comments and turned to praise.

Trump even had Mamdani answer a question about whether the mayor-elect thought the president was a “fascist.”

Trump chimed in, patting Mamdani on the arm and smiling. “It’s easier than explaining.”

The closest Trump came to criticizing Mamdani’s politics was when he told reporters, “He has very few views.”

Perhaps most strikingly, Trump dismissed the same question that one of Trump’s top political allies attacked Mamdani in New York.

“Do you think you’re standing next to a ‘jihadist’ in the Oval Office?” A reporter asked, quoting Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman who is running for governor of New York State.

Trump quickly responded, “No.”

“You say things like that sometimes on the campaign trail,” Trump said of Stefanik. “She is a very capable person.”

Mamdani and Trump have something in common. Both are New Yorkers, and both have called the borough of Queens home.

Trump’s childhood home is in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood, and Mamdani currently resides in Astoria.

The two had a “shared love” for the city, Mamdani said.

Although President Trump rarely spends time at the Manhattan skyscraper that bears his name these days, he spoke fondly of his hometown throughout the press conference.

“I would be very happy if we could make this city an unbelievable success,” Trump said.

At one point, the president suggested that, had his political career been different, he would have wanted to be mayor of New York himself.

Perhaps one of the reasons the two appeared together on Friday was their shared focus on cost-of-living issues.

Trump won re-election last year after relentlessly attacking the high inflation problem that had frustrated voters in 2024. As consumers become anxious about the cost of groceries, housing and other necessities, Trump has sought to convey a message of economic security.

During her New York City election campaign, Mamdani focused on the affordable housing shortage and proposed a freeze on rent increases for certain rent-stabilized apartments, among other proposals.

Mamdani said he and President Trump discussed “how to make things affordable for New Yorkers.”

The mayor-elect restarts the conversation on this topic every time he is asked about differing views.

In response to one question about differing views on achieving peace in the Middle East, Mamdani responded that Trump voters have expressed to him a desire for “an end to perpetual war” and for leaders to address the “cost-of-living crisis.”

When it comes to law enforcement and immigration, they appear to have found some common ground. Mamdani said he and President Trump discussed federal immigration enforcement operations in New York and conveyed residents’ concerns about how the operations were progressing.

But Trump said he discussed crime more than immigration.

“He doesn’t want to see crime, and I don’t want to see crime,” the president said. He had “little doubt” that the two would get along on the issue.

Trump even said he would be safe living in New York under Mamdani.

The cordial relationship revealed on Friday could complicate Republican efforts to use the self-described democratic socialists as bogeymen in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections that will likely seize control of the U.S. Congress.

In elections earlier this month, Republicans struggled and Democrats won key races. It is unclear whether this trend will hold.

According to US news site Axios, the Republican Party had planned to make Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party. They included portraying him as anti-police, anti-capitalist and anti-Israel in a bid to give Republicans an edge in key races.

But apathy in the Oval Office could undermine that strategy.

The president praised Mamdani and said the new mayor would “surprise some conservative people.”