As New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani wrapped up his high-stakes meeting with President Trump Friday, the president said the two had a great conversation centered on the future of New York City.
The two leaders spent half an hour answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office and highlighting some surprising areas of agreement.
Here are the top four takeaways from the meeting.
The meeting was surprisingly cordial
Mr. Trump and Mamdani have spent months criticizing each other. For two people who appeared, going into the meeting, to be at such loggerheads, the conviviality the two displayed, cracking jokes and offering friendly pats with one another, was surprising.
They joked about past names they’ve called one another. At one point, Mr. Trump responded when Mamdani was asked about having called the president a “despot” and “fascist.”
“I’ve been called much worse than a despot,” Mr. Trump said. “I think he’ll change his mind once he gets to know me.”
During the meeting, Mr. Trump clapped Mamdani on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. At one point, Mr. Trump told reporters Mamdani could end up being the best mayor New York has ever seen.
“I just want to congratulate [him], I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor, and the better he does, the happier I am,” Mr. Trump said.
The two pledged to work together
Mamdani and Mr. Trump, who both have roots in Queens, said repeatedly they look forward to working together.
“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Mr. Trump said. “A big help, because I want New York City to be great.”
The two appeared to bury the hatchet, abandoning the name-calling and divisive rhetoric.
Mamdani seemed to relish his first test of diplomacy on the national stage, smiling and laughing as the two spoke about common ground.
“When I spoke to New Yorkers who had voted for the president last November on Hillside Avenue and Fordham Road, I heard, again and again, two major reasons. One, was that they wanted an end to forever wars. They wanted an end to taxpayer dollars we had funding violations of human rights, and they wanted to address the cost of living crisis. And I appreciated the chance to discuss both of those things,” Mamdani said.
“He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m OK with that,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump has previously threatened to pull federal funding if Mamdani won. He said Friday he and Mamdani are aligned on many issues, like keeping New York City safe.
“So, we’re going to work together. We’re going to make sure that if there are horrible people, that we want to get them out,” Mr. Trump said. “He wants to have a safe New York. Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York.”
Mr. Trump said he’d feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration.
Mamdani got good advice
Before the meeting, Mamdani spoke by phone with Gov. Kathy Hochul, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Based on the outcome of the meeting, Mamdani got some good advice.
“I think that [Mamdani] went there knowing that he had to make a friend of Donald Trump for this reason: he can’t get his agenda passed if he has troops marching down Fifth Avenue, or if he has to deal with more ICE agents,” CBS News New York’s political reporter Marcia Kramer said. “He can’t do his budget if he’s going to have a huge chunk in it caused by a loss of federal funds. So he knew he had to make him his friend. And I think he did that, and I think that the advice probably that made the most sense to him came from Gov. Hochul. Because the governor had tried repeatedly to get along with the president, and I think she gave him some tips on how to do it.”
Kramer added that both Mr. Trump and Mamdani “had a lot riding on this meeting.”
“[President Trump] doesn’t need a fight with the mayor of New York City, who has the media spotlight, not only in New York City, but the international media spotlight. This is not something President Trump wants,” Kramer said. “And besides, let’s remember this. This is his hometown. He may be living in Florida. This is his hometown. He has a lot of real estate interests here. And if Mr. Mamdani does not succeed as mayor, it’s going to hurt the president in his pocketbook.”
Mr. Trump said he wanted to be mayor himself
A surprising moment was when Mr. Trump admitted that being mayor of New York is a “big deal.”
“I always said, one of the things I would’ve loved to be someday, is the mayor of New York City, ” Mr. Trump said.
Kramer pointed out that the president is term-limited, but he could run for mayor in New York City at the end of his term.
