{"id":47898,"date":"2025-11-21T22:05:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T22:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/47898\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T22:05:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T22:05:05","slug":"mamdani-trumps-expected-slugfest-turns-into-a-lovefest-as-president-says-socialist-will-make-nyc-greater-than-ever-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/47898\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani, Trump’s expected slugfest turns into a lovefest as president says socialist will make NYC ‘greater than ever before’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani\u2019s high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump Friday turned into an unexpected White House lovefest \u2013 with the president repeatedly lauding<\/a> the democratic socialist mayor-elect.<\/p>\n

A sitting Trump, with Mamdani standing by his side behind the Oval Office\u2019s desk, heaped praise on the Democrat, jovially touching his arm, helping him dodge tough questions \u2014 and even predicting that the far-left pol will make New York City great again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he wants to make it greater than ever before,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cAnd if he can, we\u2019ll be out there cheering. I\u2019ll be cheering for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long-awaited meeting between President Trump and newly elected NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani left many shocked, as the supposed rivals instead took turns praising eachother. AP<\/p>\n

Mamdani notably was more measured in his own praise of Trump, noting that the president\u2019s better-than-expected showing in New York City during 2024\u2019s presidential election came because of his own focus on kitchen table issues relating to affordability.<\/p>\n

He said their roughly 30-minute chat focused on affordability<\/a>, rather than their many differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he wants to make it greater than ever before,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd if he can, we\u2019ll be out there cheering. I\u2019ll be cheering for him.\u201d Yuri Gripas \u2013 Pool via CNP<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump agreed.<\/p>\n

Trump said that their half-hour talk focused mainly of affordability. Yuri Gripas \u2013 Pool via CNP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one thing in common. We want this city of ours that we love to do very well,\u201d Trump said as the two began fielding questions following the closed-door sit-down.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

The mayor-elect faced several potentially awkward questions about his past statements<\/a> calling Trump, among other things, a \u201cdespot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump repeatedly gave Mamdani an out when he was asked questions on his previous comments about the president. Getty Images<\/p>\n

But a seemingly impressed Trump swooped in several times to give Mamdani an out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been called much worse than a despot, so it\u2019s not that insulting,\u201d Trump joked.<\/p>\n

Trump, who had spent months deriding Mamdani as \u201cmy little Communist\u201d and threatening to cut off federal funding for the city, even backed off his threat to send the National Guard to New York City.<\/p>\n

Trump also backed off his threat to send the National Guard to New York City. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The president said Mamdani knows the streets need to be \u201csafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed crime, and he doesn\u2019t want to see crime, and I don\u2019t want to see crime, and I have very little doubt that we\u2019re not going to get along on that issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani\u2019s high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump Friday turned into an unexpected White House lovefest \u2013 with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,1092,57,9,11,10,87,58,5561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-47898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-mayor","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-white-house","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}