Donald Trump has confirmed a long-awaited meeting with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will happen in Washington this week, setting up an in-person clash between the political opposites who for months have antagonised each other.
The sit-down, which Trump said on social media would take place on Friday in the Oval Office, could possibly represent a detente of sorts between the Republican president and Democratic rising star.
Calling Mamdani by his full name – and putting the mayor-elect’s middle name of Kwame in quotation marks – Trump posted on Wednesday night that Mamdani had asked for the meeting, promising: “Further details to follow!”
Saying it was “customary” for an incoming New York City mayor to meet with the president, Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said the incoming mayor planned to discuss with Trump “public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over one million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago”.
Trump for months has slammed Mamdani, falsely labelling him a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his home town if the democratic socialist was elected. He also threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalised American citizen in 2018, and to pull federal money from the city.
But following the November elections – in which Republicans lost badly in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as New York – Trump has spoken more about affordability, which had been a focal point across the Democratic campaigns. Last week in a social media post he declared that the Republicans were the “Party of Affordability!” This comes as the president and his fellow Republicans insist the economy has never been stronger.
Trump told reporters on Sunday night that he planned to meet with Mamdani, saying “we’ll work something out”. On Monday, Mamdani – who officially takes office in January – said that he hoped to meet Trump, confirming that his team had reached out to the White House to set up a possible sit-down.
During his victory speech earlier this month, Mamdani, a 34-year-old who in just a few short months rose from obscure state lawmaker representing Queens to mayor-elect of the nation’s biggest city, said he wanted New York to show the country how to defeat the president.
He’s also talked about “Trump-proofing” New York once he takes office in January while also promising to work with anyone, including the president, if it benefited New Yorkers.
