President Donald Trump heaped praise on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani after their meeting at the White House, congratulating him on his win and saying he was “very confident that he can do a very good job.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office after their closed-door conversation, Trump — who had previously labeled the incoming mayor a “communist lunatic” and accused him of antisemitism — struck a much different tone Friday.
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President Donald Trump heaped praise on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani after their meeting at the White House Friday, congratulating him on his win and saying he was “very confident that he can do a very good job”
Standing next to a seated Trump in the Oval Office, Mamdani said the two spoke about rent, utilities and grocery prices, as well as “the different ways in which people are being pushed out” of the five boroughs
The meeting between the two men marked their first face-to-face encounter
“I met with a man who is a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again,” the president said.
“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he’s going to be, I think he’s going to surprise some conservative people, actually,” he added. “And some very liberal people, he won’t surprise, because they already like him.”
Mamdani traveled to Washington, D.C. with newly appointed chief of staff Elle Bisgaard-Church and senior adviser Morris Katz Friday morning for the highly anticipated meeting, a day after he told reporters he planned to discuss the city’s affordability crisis with the president.
Standing next to a seated Trump in the Oval Office Friday afternoon, Mamdani said the two spoke about rent, utilities and grocery prices, as well as “the different ways in which people are being pushed out” of the five boroughs.
“I appreciated the meeting with the president,” the mayor-elect said, describing the discussion as “a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City, and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.”
“I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views, and 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,” he said.
“And frankly, that is something that could transform the lives of eight and a half million people who are currently struggling under a cost-of-living crisis, with one in four living in poverty,” he added. “And the meeting came back again and again to what it could look like to lift those New Yorkers out of struggle and start to deliver them a city that they could do more than just struggle to afford it but actually start to live in it.”
The meeting between the two men marked their first face-to-face encounter. Prior to their discussion, Trump had indicated that with Mamdani as mayor, he would take steps to ensure New York City would not get as much federal funding as it otherwise would.
After their talk Friday, Trump said his administration would work to help the incoming mayor.
“I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor,” he said. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought. I think he’s, I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him to do a great job.”
“The better he does, the happier I am, I will say. There’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true,” he added.
Asked if he, as a billionaire, would feel comfortable living in New York City under a Mamdani administration, Trump didn’t hesitate.
“No, I feel very comfortable,” he responded. “I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York, and I think much more so after the meeting.”
Being the mayor of New York City, Trump added, “is a big deal.”
“I always said, you know, one of the things I would have loved to be someday is the mayor of New York City. Being the mayor of New York, and especially now, because I think you’re at, really a turning point one way or the other,” he said.
“It could go great, or it can go in a different direction, and I think you really have a chance to make it great.”
In a statement Friday evening, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she welcomed Trump’s “renewed commitment today to New York’s success and his acknowledgment of our shared priorities: lowering costs and improving public safety.”
“I look forward to working with President Trump and Mayor-Elect Mamdani to deliver for New Yorkers. But as I’ve always said, I’ll work with the President when it benefits New Yorkers, and I’ll fight like hell when our values are at stake,” she wrote in a statement.