Trump and Mamdani go from adversaries to allies after White House
meeting
[November 22, 2025]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday met the man who had
proudly proclaimed himself “Donald Trump's worst nightmare,” but he
seemed to find the opposite.
The Republican president and New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
were warm and friendly, speaking repeatedly of their shared goals to
help Trump's hometown rather than their combustible differences.
Trump, who had in the past called Mamdani a "100% Communist Lunatic" and
a “total nut job," spoke openly of how impressed he was with the man who
had called his administration “authoritarian.”
“I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually,"
Trump said of the democratic socialist as Mamdani stood next to him in
the Oval Office.
The meeting offered political opportunities for both men. For Mamdani, a
sit-down offered the state lawmaker — who until recently was relatively
unknown — the chance to go head-to-head with the most powerful person in
the world.
For Trump, it was a high-profile chance to talk about affordability at a
time when he’s under increasing political pressure to show he’s
addressing voter concerns about the cost of living.
Until now, the men have been political foils who galvanized their
supporters by taking on each other, and it's unclear how those backers
will react to their genial get-together and complimentary words.
“We’re going to be helping him, to make everybody’s dream come true,
having a strong and very safe New York,” the president said.
“What I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that
we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and
also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,”
Mamdani said.
‘I’ll stick up for you'
Mamdani and Trump said they discussed housing affordability and the cost
of groceries and utilities, as Mamdani successfully used frustration
over inflation to get elected, just as the president did in the 2024
election.
“Some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have,” the president
said of Mamdani about inflationary issues.
The president brushed aside Mamdani's criticisms of him over his
administration's deportation raids and claims that Trump was behaving
like a despot. Instead, Trump said the responsibility of holding an
executive position in the government causes a person to change, saying
that had been the case for him.
He seemed at times even protective of Mamdani, jumping in on his behalf
at several points. For example, when reporters asked Mamdani to clarify
his past statements indicating that he thought the president was acting
like a fascist, Trump said, “I’ve been called much worse than a despot.”
When a reporter asked if Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump is a
fascist, Trump interjected before the mayor-elect could fully answer the
question.
“That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK?” Trump said. “It’s easier. It’s
easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
Trump stepped in again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to
Washington instead of taking transportation that used less fossil fuels.
“I’ll stick up for you," Trump said.
All about affordability
Mamdani, who takes office in January, said he sought the meeting with
Trump to talk about ways to make New York City more affordable. Trump
has said he may want to help him out — although he has also falsely
labeled Mamdani as a “communist” and threatened to yank federal funds
from the city.
But Trump on Friday didn't sling that at the mayor. He acknowledged that
he had said he had been prepared to cut off funding or make it harder
for New York City to access federal resources if the two had failed to
“get along,” only to pull back from those threats during the meeting.
“We don’t want that to happen," Trump said. "I don’t think that’s going
to happen.”
Afterward, Mamdani’s former campaign manager and incoming chief of staff
Elle Bisgaard-Church told NY1 that the pair clearly disagreed on some
issues but were able to find common ground on things like reducing
crime.
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New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani listens as President Donald
Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 21,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“We discussed that we share a mutual goal of having a safe city
where everyone can move around in comfort and ease,” she said,
before later adding, “We know that there have been labels thrown all
around that are just simply not fair and we kept it, again, at where
we could find agreement on making the city affordable."
Trump loomed large over the mayoral race this year, and on the eve
of the election, he endorsed independent candidate and former
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the city has “ZERO chance
of success, or even survival” if Mamdani won. He also questioned the
citizenship of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a
naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, and said
he'd have him arrested if he followed through on threats not to
cooperate with immigration agents in the city.
Mamdani beat back a challenge from Cuomo, painting him as a “puppet”
for the president, and promised to be “a mayor who can stand up to
Donald Trump and actually deliver.” He declared during one primary
debate, "I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive
Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe
in.”
The president, who has long used political opponents to fire up his
backers, predicted Mamdani “will prove to be one of the best things
to ever happen to our great Republican Party.” As Mamdani upended
the Democratic establishment by defeating Cuomo and his far-left
progressive policies provoked infighting, Trump repeatedly has cast
Mamdani as the face of Democratic Party.
Some had expected fireworks in the Oval Office meeting
The president has had some dramatic public Oval Office faceoffs this
year, including an infamously heated exchange with Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. In May, Trump dimmed the
lights while meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
and played a four-minute video making widely rejected claims that
South Africa is violently persecuting the country’s white Afrikaner
minority farmers.
A senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of
anonymity to describe internal discussions said Trump had not put a
lot of thought into planning the meeting with the incoming mayor —
but said Trump’s threats to block federal dollars from flowing to
New York remained on the table.
Mamdani said Thursday that he was not concerned about the president
potentially trying to use the meeting to publicly embarrass him and
said he saw it as a chance to make his case, even while
acknowledging “many disagreements with the president.”
Instead, both men avoided a public confrontation in a remarkably
calm and cordial series of comments in front of news reporters.
Mamdani, who lives in Queens — where Trump was raised — has shown a
cutthroat streak just as Trump has as a candidate. During his
campaign, he appeared to borrow from Trump's playbook when he noted
during a televised debate with Cuomo that one of the women who had
accused the former governor of sexual harassment was in the
audience. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.
But the tensions were subdued Friday as Trump seemed sympathetic to
Mamdani's policies to want to build more housing.
“People would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing,” the
president said.
___
Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak in Washington
and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.
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