President Trump will meet with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday afternoon in the Oval Office, marking the first time the two will be face-to-face.
While previous incoming New York City mayors have met with sitting presidents, Mamdani and Trump have already clashed prior to this meeting. Trump has repeatedly sought to paint Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic socialist, as too radical and extreme for the city that the president long called home. In the president's announcement of the meeting on Truth Social, Trump called Mamdani a "communist."
It's a narrative that Mamdani has firmly pushed back on, vowing to carry out his agenda focused on lowering the cost of living.
"My team reached out to the White House to set up this meeting because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than eight and a half million people who call this city home," Mamdani told reporters on Thursday. "I have many disagreements with the president, and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker."
Trump has been a vocal opponent of Mamdani since his upset win in June's Democratic primary, saying he would arrest Mamdani if he disrupted ICE operations in the city and threatening to pull the city's federal funding should he win in November.
"Look, we don't need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I'm going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation," Trump told reporters over the summer, shortly after Mamdani's primary win. Mamdani responded directly to Trump in his victory speech on election night. "Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up," he said, adding, "to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us."
Over the course of just months, Mamdani's candidacy for mayor turned from a long-shot bid to a national movement, sparking interest far beyond New York in his progressive ideas, including freezing rent in rent-stabilized units, making city buses free and opening city-run grocery stores; and skepticism about how the new mayor will find the money to pay for it all.
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