WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani spoke in their first face-to-face meeting Friday afternoon at the White House, bringing together two ideological rivals with opposing visions for the city’s future.
Each struck a friendly tone after meeting at the Oval Office for more than 30 minutes behind closed doors.
“I think he’s hopefully a really great man,” Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office, later saying he thought Mamdani would “surprise” some conservative critics.
Mamdani, standing next to Trump, who was seated behind the Resolute Desk, said he “appreciated” his time speaking to the President.
“It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love of New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Trump said he and Mamdani spoke at-length about public safety, “more than anything else.”
“Ultimately a safe New York is going to be a great New York,” Trump said. “No matter how well we do with pricing and with anything else, we can talk about anything you want, if you don’t have safe streets, it’s not going to be a success, so we’re going to work together.”
Trump, speaking about Mamdani’s calls for a more affordable New York, said “some of the ideas he has, are ideas I have.”
“You know the new word is affordability, another word is just groceries, sort of an old fashion word, but it’s very accurate,” Trump said.
Both also struck a friendly tone ahead of their first face-to-face meeting Friday afternoon at the White House.
“I think it’s going to be quite civil, we’ll find out,” Trump told Fox News in an interview hours before the 3 p.m. Oval Office meeting.
Mamdani, arriving at Ronald Reagan International Airport Friday afternoon, told reporters on hand who asked about his expectations for the meeting that he was “focused on the affordability crisis.”
Trump, who built his wealth reshaping the Manhattan skyline, and Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Astoria whose political rise was fueled by calls to increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest, were set to meet after months of trading barbs.
For months the Queens-born President has railed against the 34-year-old democratic socialist calling him a “communist” and a “lunatic,” all as Mamdani has vowed to “Trump-proof” the city and push back against the president’s mass deportation agenda.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump took less of a combative tone telling Fox News: “I give him a lot of credit for the run. I think we’ll get along fine, we’re looking for the same thing — we want to make New York strong, but such a different philosophy.”
Trump has long railed against Mamdani’s agenda, threatening to withhold federal funding to the nation’s largest city over Mamdani’s calls to raise taxes on the city’s top income earners to fund proposed initiatives like universal child care for children five years of age and younger.
“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home,” Trump said in a Nov. 3 social media post.
Just before Election Day, Trump urged his supporters to vote for former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who lost a primary bid to Mamdani in June, and staged a failed independent bid.
Mamdani, in his election night victory speech took direct aim at Trump, saying: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!”
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani told cheering supporters.
Despite being political opposites, Trump and Mamdani share similar themes that fueled their political rise — both rode a populist message to higher office, both were considered underdogs when they launched their campaigns, and both effectively wielded social media to build their base of support.
With Trump and the GOP-congress controlling the federal purse strings that fund everything from mass transit updates to public housing, Mamdani likely understands the need to build some level of cooperation, said Meena Bose, executive director of Hofstra University’s Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.
“The mayor of New York City has much to coordinate with the national government on transportation issues, on funding for housing … the financial sector in New York, the United Nations is in New York City, there are multiple reasons it’s essential for the city’s mayor to have a working relationship with the President,” Bose said.
New York City is expected to receive $7.4 billion in federal funding next year — roughly 6.4% of the city’s overall budget — according to a report released in April by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.