In a New York minute, everything can change. On Friday afternoon, Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York branded a raging red “Commie”, arrived in the White House for an anticipated ideological showdown with president Donald Trump. Before sunset and the disbelieving eyes of the nation, the pair had transformed into a bizarre political version of Chandler and Joey. This was, for one afternoon at least, a true bromance between two New Yorkers.
But as if the Friday hall-of mirrors moment wasn’t strange enough, by nightfall Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia representative who has spectacularly fallen out with Trump over both the inflation crisis and the Epstein files, announced her resignation from Congress. It led to immediate speculation that her departure marked the beginning of her 2028 presidential campaign. In the space of a few hours, Trump had lost one of his most devout political supporters while welcoming a communist mayor like the prodigal son.
Although listed as a closed-press event right until Mamdani arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there was no way that Trump was going to have a real, live communist in the Oval Office without a television camera or two on hand to broadcast the moment. After a private meeting, the press was invited in, by which time Trump seemed kind of mesmerised by his visitor. The stage-setting was familiar: Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk while his guest stood. The president conducted the press conference in his usual Bernsteinian fashion. Mamdani wore his navy suit, his beard was neatly trimmed and he carried himself with that disconcerting self-possession of his as Trump threw bouquet after bouquet around the room.
“We want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” he said.
RM Block
“There will be topics that we disagree on and he will convince me or I will convince him,” he said at another stage.
“It’s for the good of New York. If he can be a spectacular success I’ll be very happy.”
Gazing up at Mamdani, he offered an insight that was more revelatory than it sounded. Trump is a controversial, flamboyant billionaire reality TV star turned two-time US president and one of the most consequential American figures of the century. There wasn’t much he couldn’t or hasn’t acquired, but he knows, at 79, Mamdani’s achievement could never have been his.
“By the way, being the mayor of New York City is a big deal. I always said, you know, someday what I’d love to be is the mayor of New York City. I think you are really at a turning point. It can go one way or the other and I think you have a chance to make it great.”
In one immediately viral exchange, he interjected when a journalist asked Mamdani if he stood by calling Trump a “fascist”.
“I’ve spoken about ...” Mamdani began only for Trump to turn, playfully clap his arm and say: “That’s okay ... you can just say yes ... it’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
At times when he would look at the younger man, his face gave way to a dopey grin: not quite the son he never had, but certainly a running mate or ally he wished he had. Trump may be exiled down in Florida’s swampy glamour but, of course, he watches the five boroughs like a hawk. Home is home.
It turns out that Trump was keeping an eye on this oddball young outsider from the get-go. The confidence, the near-insane ambition, the energy and Mamdani’s ability as a talker: all New York virtues he recognised and understood. As Mamdani destroyed the old guard of Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo, Trump tipped his hat by throwing a slew of insults and threats. But having met the new mayor, he understood the fuss.
“Because I think he is different,” he said by way of explaining this startling reversal.
“Your typical guy runs, wins. Nothing exciting. New York is at a very critical point and he does need the federal government helping him and we are going to help. He came out of nowhere. He has a great campaign manager standing over there. I watched – he was at 1 per cent, then he was at 3, 9 – then he went to 17, and I said: mmmh this is a little bit interesting. Then he wins the primary that nobody expected him to. It’s an amazing thing he did.”
Mamdani, for his part, stuck to his message about making New York an affordable city for its residents again. He cleverly found common ground with Trump, whose administration is beginning to feel the acute pressure of the stubborn US inflation crisis, telling people that one in ten of his voters had also voted for Trump. It was an idea that appealed to the president, as did the walk-on part for his late father, Fred, smoothly facilitated by Mamdani.
“What we see right now, we are in the ninth consecutive years of more than 100,000 schoolchildren being homeless in our city,” Mamdani said.
“When I spoke to Trump voters on Hillside. one of whom was a pharmacist that spoke about how president Trump’s father went to that pharmacy not too far from Jamaica Estates, that people were tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars.”
More than one Democratic future-shaper watching all of this must have been cursing their luck that Mamdani had not been born in Lenox Hill or Mount Sinai hospitals rather than Uganda after this nimble performance. He looked born for the Oval Office but because of that birth cert, he can never occupy it. Instead, he charmed the most radical Republican president into enthusiastically endorsing his socialist-democratic mayoral manifesto and to promise federal support in his bid to reshape the boroughs into fairer and more liveable entities.
As Trump noted, big names, world leaders, have visited the White House on days like this and nobody cared. Nothing personal Keir, Emmanuel, Micheál, Leo but ...
“Nobody cared. Outside you have hundreds of people,” Trump enthused about the fuss.
“This is just a small little group. For some reason the press has found this to be a very interesting meeting. The biggest people in the world, they come over and nobody cares.”
Trump loves that star power. Ultimately, this Friday afternoon love-in was just a frivolous departure: an amusing moment and an escape from grimmer business, including the approaching storm over the appalling proposals for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. A tough moment for Ukraine beckons. “It looks like they are pissing on your boots and telling you it’s raining,” Ukrainian MP Halyna Yanchenko told journalist Jim Sciutto when asked about the 28-point plan proposed by the US administration on Friday.
Zohran Mamdani is familiar with Donald Trump’s capriciousness. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been both traduced and flattered by Trump in the White House. If the political climate dictates, the New Yorker will be depicted as public enemy number one again: a threat to US democracy itself.
But for a few hours, they found common ground. Mamdani offered that he’d been taken by a portrait of Roosevelt. Beaming happily, Trump said he’d found the painting languishing in the White House basement and had had it reframed and hung. They stood for a snap for posterity. There they were: just two Queens’ boys made good, posing for a photograph in front of Mr New Deal himself.
“It’s an amazing portrait,” gushed president Trump.
“I hope the picture comes out good.”
