{"id":94231,"date":"2026-01-08T23:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94231\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:12:19","slug":"trump-surprised-mamdani-hit-me-on-venezuela-but-praises-nyc-mayors-great-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94231\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump ‘surprised’ Mamdani ‘hit me’ on Venezuela \u2014 but praises NYC mayor’s ‘great personality’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump said Thursday he was \u201csurprised\u201d New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u00a0criticized his Saturday raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who\u00a0took office two days before the raid<\/a>, publicly criticized Trump and even briefly phoned the president to privately object to the ouster of the fellow socialist, who is now facing federal drug charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I met him, he\u00a0came to the Oval Office<\/a>, and we\u2019ve had some nice conversations and very good. And then he hit me a little bit on the tremendous victory \u2014 and you would say it was a tremendous victory \u2014 on Venezuela,\u201d Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview.<\/p>\n

\"US\u201cI expected it. I just thought it would be maybe three or four weeks instead of immediately, because I do get along with him,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great personality, he\u2019s a nice guy.\u201d AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Gee, I thought he would have at least waited a month.\u2019 I was surprised that he hit me on that, but he did. So what are you going to do? I expected it. I just thought it would be maybe three or four weeks instead of immediately, because I do get along with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump added: \u201cHe\u2019s got a great personality, he\u2019s a nice guy. His policies are not good, but maybe he changes. You know, that\u2019s what I would view, because I want to do everything I can to help New York\u2026 I hope New York will thrive. But typically, those policies\u2026 in history, those policies have never worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, 79, and Mamdani, 34, stunningly swapped kind words at a Nov. 21 event in the Oval Office \u2014 despite both men trading insults ahead of the Nov. 4 mayoral election.<\/p>\n

Trump, who had called Mamdani a \u201ccommunist\u201d and threatened to cut off federal funds to his hometown, pivoted in the joint appearance, predicting that the youthful politician \u201cis going to surprise some conservative people, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI expect to be helping him, not hurting him,\u201d Trump said \u2014 just 18 days after\u00a0endorsing the independent candidacy<\/a>\u00a0of former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a desperate attempt to shut out Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met with a man who\u2019s a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again\u2026.\u00a0 I think he wants to make it greater than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who had called Trump a despot and a fascist, reciprocated during that stunning appearance, saying, \u201cI am really looking forward to delivering for New Yorkers in partnership with the president on the affordability agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump said Thursday he was \u201csurprised\u201d New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u00a0criticized his Saturday raid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,9,15862,56,63,65,64,87,42364,58,7318,82],"class_list":["post-94231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-donald-trump","tag-new-york","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-politics","tag-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro","tag-us-news","tag-venezuela","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94231","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=94231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}