They both come from the same neighborhood, Queens, but inhabit planets separated by light years. Or not so much, judging by the meeting the two had this Friday at the White House, in which they gave the impression of having buried the ax they have wielded in recent months.
Perhaps it is because of President Donald Trump’s well-known weakness for the charisma of others, of which his host is rich. Or because of the commonalities. In one of the most successful videos of the campaign that led him to become mayor of New York, Zohran Kwame Mamdani went to some neighborhoods of the city where Trump improved his numbers in the 2024 elections to ask people why they voted for Republicans in the presidential elections. The reasons they gave him – which can be summarized in one, the intolerable price of the “cost of living” – are not far from those that will lead Mamdani to become, starting from January, the first Muslim and socialist mayor of the most populous city in the United States.
The two universes, that of the real estate mogul and that of the politician who won by proposing a rent freeze for 2.5 million people living in rent-controlled apartments, clashed in a much friendlier way than expected this Friday in Washington, on the occasion of Mamdani’s first visit to Washington after his victory at the polls.
“If things go better for him, the happier I will be,” Trump said after a meeting that gave the impression of going well, judging by the courtesy with which the two treated each other in front of the press, before which they appeared with the president seated and the mayor-elect standing. “I am convinced he will do a good job in New York,” the host said of his guest. “I think it will surprise a lot of conservatives.” “We don’t agree on a lot of things, but we will help you do a great job,” Trump promised during question time.
It was a meeting wanted by the new mayor after months of attacks from Trump, who persists in defining him as a “communist” (he is not), and after the cry of resistance launched by Mamdani on the night of his electoral victory, during a speech in which he addressed the president of the United States directly.
“Donald Trump, I know you’re watching me. I only have three words for you: turn up the (TV) volume!” Mamdani shouted. “New York will continue to be a city of immigrants, built by immigrants and led by immigrants. And, starting tonight, led by an immigrant”, continued the young politician, born in Kampala (Uganda). “To get to some of us you will have to outdo us all,” Trump warned in what could be interpreted as a reference to the raids on undocumented immigrants that have spread across the country.
The day before, Trump had written a message on his social media in which he offered his support to former governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who had to reinvent himself as an independent after his resounding and unexpected defeat in the June primaries. “I firmly believe that New York City will be a total economic and social disaster if Mamdani wins,” the president said then, who hinted at the idea of pressuring the mayor-elect by withdrawing federal funds from the city or sending in the National Guard, as he has done previously with left-ruled cities like Los Angeles or New York.
less drama
Despite these tense precedents, Mamdani’s team were keen to reduce the drama ahead of Friday’s match. “As is customary for the incoming City Council, the mayor-elect plans to meet with the president in Washington to discuss public safety, economic stability, and the affordable housing program that more than one million New Yorkers approved just two weeks ago,” Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said in a statement Thursday.
Knowing Trump’s weakness for the charisma of others, something Mamdani has demonstrated he has in abundance, they anticipated a confrontation not as tense as the months-long cross-statements suggested. In the previous hours, Trump had predicted in a radio interview that they would “get along”. “We have very different philosophies, but we both want the same thing: a strong New York.”
“Trump clearly feels threatened by the figure of Mamdani,” Gustavo Gordillo, co-president of the New York faction of the Democratic Socialist Party of the United States (DSA), under whose umbrella the candidate launched his candidacy for mayor, explained in a telephone interview this Friday. “He knows his talent and his abilities and understands that he has a very broad base; with more than a million votes, he won the highest percentage of mayoral elections in more than 50 years. Trump is a New Yorker, so he knows the city and it is clear that what he has achieved is not easy.”
(Breaking news. There will be an update soon.)
