I ❤ NY: Queens recognises Queens as Trump gives Mamdani warm reception | Donald Trump

TThe armies of Left America and Maga were assembled, ready to watch their champions fight. After all, Donald Trump called Zohran Mamdani a “100% communist lunatic” and a “total weirdo.” The new democratic and socialist mayor of New York had in turn described the American Republican president as a “despot” and a “fascist”.

But anyone expecting to see fists flying and shirts torn in the Oval Office was going to be disappointed. Trump, 79, and Mamdani, 34, got along quite well. In fact, beautifully, surprisingly, weirdly good. Instead of Batman v Superman, it was Toy Story’s best friends, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

Maybe the old left/right binaries really are dead. It was a case of game recognition play – of queens recognizing queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than with Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani received a warmer welcome from Trump than from his own party leaders – a world turned upside down.

The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing next to him, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common: We want our city that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.

He added: “I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a very good mayor. The better he does – the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to help him achieve everyone’s dream, to have a strong and very safe New York.”

That loud thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. This devastating noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their strategy to demonize Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.

The bromance — as incongruous as Trump laughing and joking with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral — continued with plenty of tactile body language. Mamdani, who will be New York’s first Muslim mayor and once proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” said: “It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, New York City, and the need to provide affordability to New Yorkers.” »

Once reporters began asking questions, Trump acknowledged that Mamdani had “different” views, but predicted he was “going to change” and was “going to surprise some conservatives, actually.”

Both men pointed out that some Mamdani voters also voted for Trump. The democratic socialist said it was because of the “cost of living, cost of living, cost of living” – and he looked forward to discussing the “affordability agenda” with the president. Trump admitted: “Some of his ideas are really the same as mine. »

So when Mamdani was asked about his past depiction of Trump as a despot with a fascist agenda, he deftly moved from points of disagreement to approachability. The president then added: “And I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”

What would be count as an insult these days? Totalitarian? Tyrant? Dictator? Fuhrer? When a Fox News reporter asked whether Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump was a fascist, Trump intervened before he could fully answer the question.

“It’s okay. You can just say yes. OK?” » Trump said, patting Mamdani affectionately on the arm. “It’s easier… than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

It’s cute – but historians might agree that an American president slightly ignoring the term fascist was not a defining moment in the history of the republic.

Trump intervened again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to Washington instead of taking the train, which uses less fossil fuels. “I will defend you,” the president said, before saying that flying was faster and Mamdani was busy.

And when someone asked whether Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally running for governor of New York state, had called Mamdani a “jihadist,” the president said he disagreed, calling him a “very rational person.”

One can imagine Stefanik being contacted for comment and saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” »

Indeed, it was difficult to find common ground between Mamdani and Trump. The president, who previously threatened to withdraw federal funding from America’s largest city if Mamdani won the Nov. 4 mayoral election, said: “I hope to help him without hurting him — a big help. Because I want New York to be great.”

Asked if he would feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration, billionaire Trump replied: “Yes, I would, I really would — especially after the meeting, absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.”

He said they discussed how, when democratic socialist Bernie Sanders withdrew from the 2016 presidential race, Trump lured “a lot of” his voters as he headed into the first of his two presidencies because Sanders raised issues like fraudulent trade deals. “Bernie Sanders and I agreed on a lot more than people thought,” Trump said.

The comment implied that the left and right ends of the political spectrum are not at opposite ends of a straight line, but rather curved toward each other like the ends of a horseshoe. Therefore, Trump and Mamdani may have more in common than with establishment moderates in their own parties.

Certainly both channeled their frustration with the status quo and elites. But as Trump courts oligarchs, plans a lavish ballroom and enriches his own family, his claim to economic populism is hard to swallow.

Perhaps his warm handshake with Mamdani on Friday was less about ideology than Trump’s love of a winner, leaving the president ready to flatter the mayor-elect.

As Trump said: “It’s an incredible thing he did.” »

Perhaps the president recognizes another scholar when it comes to insurrectionist election campaigns. Or maybe two New Yorkers sitting in a room and saying I ❤ NY is a language that no one else can really understand.