New York City's new mayor Zoran Mamdani and President Donald Trump will meet Friday at the White House after months of trading barbs and insults during the city's recent elections.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the New York City mayoral election earlier this month, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by nine points. Although he was little known outside New York before the election, he has now become a nationally recognized figure.
Trump's statement said the “communist mayor” asked for the meeting, which would take place in the Oval Office.
Mamdani told reporters on Thursday that the meeting will focus on issues of public safety, affordability and economic security.
“I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. “If any agenda affects New Yorkers, I will be the first to say something.”
A spokeswoman for the mayor-elect, Dora Peckec, said the meeting with Trump was routine for the mayor's new administration.
In a Fox News radio interview Friday morning, Trump said the meeting would be “civil.”
“He has a different philosophy,” said Republican President Mamdani. “He's a little different. I give credit to his run. “He’s had a successful run and we all know runs aren’t easy, but I think we can do it.”
The White House schedule for Friday places the meeting in the afternoon and is closed to press coverage. But the president's schedule could change before then.
Around 8:30 a.m. EST (1:30 p.m. BST), the new mayor posted a selfie that appeared to show him sitting in an airplane seat.
Mamdani's predecessors, Democrats Bill de Blasio and current Mayor Eric Adams, did not hold high-profile Oval Office meetings on their own with the president, although they did attend White House meetings with other mayors and officials.
Differences between the two-term president and the fast-rising political newcomer began to fester shortly after Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June.
Trump denounced Mamdani as the “communist” future of the Democratic Party and threatened to withhold billions of federal dollars from the largest U.S. city because of his victory.
In the weeks leading up to Mamdani's election, Trump, a native New Yorker, frequently portrayed the mayor-elect as an extremist who had “barely worked a day in his life.”
In an unusual last-minute move, the Republican president endorsed challenger Mamdani Cuomo, a Democrat who was running as an independent.
In Mamdani's victory speech on Election Day, he mocked Trump, urging him to “turn up the volume” on his television.
Minutes later, Trump responded on his Truth Social social media site: “…AND THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS!”
Mamdani, a former state legislator who campaigned on an affordability platform in one of the most expensive cities in the United States, shocked many when he won the New York Democratic primary in June.
“I know that for tens of thousands of New Yorkers, this matchup is between two very different candidates who they voted for for the same reason,” Mamdani said Thursday. “They wanted a leader who would take on the cost of living crisis.”
He vowed to challenge Trump by hiring more lawyers to prepare to file lawsuits and promising that New York “will remain a city of immigrants” as Trump carries out a crackdown on immigration across the country.
