President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he wants to meet with Zohran Mamdani, the man who just won the race to become New York City’s next mayor. This is a big change from how the two have been treating each other over the past few months.
Trump has been going after Mamdani for a long time now. He kept calling him a “communist,” which is not true, and said New York would fall apart if the democratic socialist got elected. Trump even said he would kick Mamdani out of the country, even though Mamdani was born in Uganda and is now an American citizen. The president also talked about taking away federal money from the city.
Trump was getting ready to leave Florida and head back to Washington when he spoke to reporters. As per AP News, he said, “The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us. We’ll work something out.” A White House spokesperson later explained that Trump was talking about Mamdani, but they have not picked a date yet. Trump also said, “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”
This is quite the turnaround from their campaign rivalry
The idea of these two sitting down together is pretty surprising given how they have been talking about each other. Mamdani was not very well known before, but he became really popular on social media during his campaign for mayor. He ran on ideas that appealed to the left and made it clear he did not like Trump’s tough approach to immigration.
Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo, who used to be the governor of New York, by almost 9 percentage points. A lot of different kinds of New Yorkers voted for him. When he gave his speech after winning, Mamdani said he wanted New York to lead the way in standing up to the president. Throughout his campaign, Mamdani faced criticism and warnings from political rivals about his progressive platform.
But the very next day, Mamdani started talking differently. He was discussing ways to protect New York from Trump’s policies once he starts his job in January, but he also said he would work with anyone, even the president, if it helps people in New York. A person who speaks for Mamdani brought up what he said last week about wanting to talk to the White House “because this is a relationship that will be critical to the success of the city.”
People working for Mamdani did not say anything right away about what Trump said on Sunday. The Working Families Party had backed Mamdani during his mayoral campaign, supporting his progressive vision for the city.
Trump also talked about maybe having conversations with the leader of Venezuela after some military activity near that country. He told reporters, “I’ll talk to anybody,” which shows he is open to talking even with people he does not agree with.
Published: Nov 17, 2025 12:15 pm