Incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani slipped into the White House on Friday for his long-anticipated first meeting with US President Donald Trump, a pairing Trump insisted would “get along fine,” even after months of both men treating each other like political sparring partners.
The White House confirmed that Mamdani had arrived, though no one seemed sure how. He did not enter through the main gate used by most visitors, where dozens of reporters had been camped out to catch a glimpse of the mayor-elect. Instead, he appeared to materialise inside the complex, bypassing the press scrum entirely.
The only official hint came from White House communications director Steven Cheung, who posted a photo on X showing the waiting pack of journalists outside the West Wing with a teasing caption: “Too late guys! Y’all are too slow!”
Trump, who earlier said he expected the meeting to be “quite civil,” has portrayed Mamdani as a far-left agitator, calling him a “radical left lunatic” and predicting he would be “a disaster” for New York. On Friday morning, though, he softened his tone, telling a radio interviewer: “I think we’ll get along fine. We both want New York to be strong.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who takes office on January 1, had requested the White House meeting to discuss affordability issues, housing pressures and public safety—areas where he and Trump have found little common ground in public. The two have regularly clashed over immigration, policing and federal funding.
The president announced the meeting Wednesday night on social media while again tagging the mayor-elect a “communist,” even putting Mamdani’s middle name, Kwame, in quotation marks.
But by Friday morning, Trump was striking a far friendlier tone.
In a Fox News Radio interview with Brian Kilmeade, Trump said the meeting would go quite well and suggested he may have gone overboard during the campaign. “He’s got a different philosophy. He’s a little bit different,” Trump said. “I give him a lot of credit for the run. They did a successful run I think we’ll get along fine.”
Trump added that both men shared at least one goal. “We want to make New York strong,” he said. “You know, there’s such a different philosophy, but we want the same thing.”
Speaking to reporters outside City Hall the day before his visit, Mamdani acknowledged “many disagreements with the president” but stressed he was ready to cooperate where possible. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers,” he said. “If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”
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