Trump-Mamdani meet: US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) praised the “productive" meeting held with New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani with a social media post hours after their strikingly cordial joint appearance at the White House.
In a post on Truth Social following the Oval Office meeting, Trump said that he was honored to meet the 34-year-old leader.
“It was a Great Honor meeting Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York City!" he said.
In a separate post, the US President shared several photos from the visit, including images of him and Mamdani together at the White House as well as one picture featuring the mayor-elect standing alone in front of a painting of former US President Franklin Roosevelt.
After the meeting, the two leaders said the meeting was “productive" and a lot of important issues were discussed. Trump vowed to work together with Mamdani and support his affordability agenda.
“We’ve just had a great meeting, a really good, very productive meeting," Trump said, adding that the two had one thing in common – “we want this city of ours that we love to do very well."
Mamdani also called the meeting “productive" and that the two discussed issues of affordability in New York, the main pillar of his campaign. “I appreciated the meeting with the president, and as he said it was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, New York City.
During the meeting, he also emphasised that “working people have been left behind in New York," citing the growing number of residents who struggle to afford basic public transit fares.
“Working people have been left behind in New York. In the wealthiest city in the world, one in five can’t afford $2.90 for the train or bus. As I told Trump today— it’s time to put those people right back at the heart of our politics," he said in a post on X.
He added that he conveyed this message to the US President, stressing that those excluded from economic opportunity must be placed “back at the heart of our politics."
The tone of the meeting was markedly friendly and civil after Trump and Mamdani repeatedly traded barbs in the past. Trump frequently calls Mamdani a “communist", while the New York mayor-elect has publicly derided the president’s anti-immigration policies, calling him a “despot".
However, the US President adopted a friendlier tone during Friday’s interaction, congratulating Mamdani’s performance in the New York mayoral polls and said he had beaten “a lot of smart people" in the race. He also said some of Mamdani’s views on New York’s economic issues and affordability were similar to his own.
The duo had a series of acrimonious public exchanges in the past. Trump has called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic" and a “total nut job" and the New York Mayor-elect has called Trump’s administration “authoritarian" and described himself as the president’s “worst nightmare."
Source: News18