The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.
But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
Perhaps the old left v right binaries really are dead. This was a case of game recognising game – of Queens recognising Queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani got a warmer reception from Trump than from the leaders of his own party – a world turned upside down.
The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing to his side, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common – we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.
He added: “I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. 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, having a strong and very safe New York.”
That great thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. That shredding noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their playbook to demonise Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.
The bromance – as incongruous as Trump laughing and joking with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – went on with plenty of tactile body language. Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and once proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” reported: “It was 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.”
Once reporters started asking questions, Trump acknowledged that Mamdani has views that are “out there” but predicted he is “going to change” and “is going to surprise some conservative people, actually”.
Both men noted that some Mamdani voters had also voted for Trump. The democratic socialist said it was because of “cost of living, cost of living, cost of living” – and he looked forward to delivering with the president on “the affordability agenda”. Trump acknowledged: “Some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.”
So when Mamdani was asked about his past description of Trump as a despot with a fascist agenda, he artfully pivoted from points of disagreement back to affordability. The president then interjected: “And I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”
What would count as an insult these days? Totalitarian? Tyrant? Dictator? Führer? When a Fox News reporter asked if Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump is a fascist, Trump interjected before he could fully answer the question.
“That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK?” Trump said, patting Mamdani affectionately on the arm. “It’s easier … than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
Cute – but historians may opine that a US president lightly shrugging off the term fascist was not a stellar moment in the history of the republic.
Trump jumped in again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to Washington instead of taking a train, which uses less fossil fuels. “I’ll stick up for you,” the president said, before saying flying was faster and Mamdani was busy.
And when someone asked about Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally running for governor of New York state, having branded Mamdani “a jihadist”, the president said he did not agree, calling him “a very rational person”.
One can imagine Stefanik being reached for comment and saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Indeed, it was hard to get a wafer between Mamdani and Trump. The president, who had previously threatened to strip federal funding from the biggest US city if Mamdani won the 4 November mayor’s race, said: “I expect to be helping him not hurting him – a big help. Because I want New York City to be great.”
Asked if he would feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration, the billionaire Trump responded: “Yeah, I would, I really would – especially after the meeting, absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.”
He elaborated by saying they had discussed how, when democratic socialist Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, Trump picked up “a lot” of his voters on his way to the first of his two presidencies because Sanders had raised issues such as rip-off trade deals. “Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought,” Trump said.
The comment implied that the far left and far right ends of the political spectrum are not at opposite ends in a straight line but rather curve toward each other like the ends of a horseshoe. Hence Trump and Mamdani might have more in common than they do with the establishment moderates of their own parties.
Certainly both channeled frustration with the status quo and the elites. But as Trump courts oligarchs, plans a lavish ballroom and enriches his own family, his claim to economic populism is hard to swallow.
Perhaps his warm handshake with Mamdani on Friday was less about ideology than Trump’s love of a winner leaving the president willing to flatter the mayor-elect.
As Trump put it: “It’s an amazing thing that he did.”
Perhaps the president recognises a fellow savant when it comes to insurgent election campaigns. Or perhaps two New Yorkers sitting in a room and saying I ❤ NY is a language no one else can quite understand.
