Trump and Zohran Mamdani to meet in the Oval Office

Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani will sit down Friday in a highly anticipated meeting between the 34-year-old New York mayor-elect and a president who sought to bring him to his knees during the campaign.

The White House and Mamdani’s team have been working behind the scenes to arrange a session between the two men, who will speak face to face for the first time. Trump announced the meeting Wednesday on social media, saying Mamdani, whom he again called a “communist,” would come to the Oval Office.

Trump frequently calls Mamdani a communist; Mamdani – a self-described democratic socialist – rejected this label.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mamdani said he would be “prepared to deal with whatever happens” during his meeting in the Oval Office.

“This meeting does not worry me. I see this meeting as an opportunity to make my case,” he said, adding: “It is my responsibility to spare no effort to make the city more affordable.

“I have many disagreements with the president,” he continued. “And I believe we must be relentless and pursue every avenue and every meeting that can make our city affordable for every New Yorker.”

Mamdani noted that it is customary for New York’s new mayor to meet with the president.

“For tens of thousands of New Yorkers, this meeting is between two very different candidates who they voted for for the same reason: They wanted a leader who would tackle the cost of living crisis,” he said.

Mamdani defeated independent candidate Andrew Cuomo – whom Trump endorsed at the last minute – and Republican Curtis Sliwa, gaining a notable number of Trump supporters in the November 4 election. NBC News exit polls found that 10% of New York City voters who voted for Trump in last year’s presidential election voted for Mamdani.

Trump has long sought to influence the mayoral race, even before supporting Cuomo. He told reporters that if Mamdani won, he would deny any additional funding to New York City.

Asked Thursday if there was any chance Mamdani could persuade Trump not to deprive New York City of additional funding, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “We’ll see how the meeting goes tomorrow, and I’ll let the president speak for himself.”

She added that it “speaks volumes” that there is a “communist coming to the White House, because he’s the one the Democratic Party elected mayor of the greatest city in the country.”

“I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone, talk to anyone and try to do the right thing on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states, red states or blue cities,” Leavitt said.

Trump, a native New Yorker who made a career in the city’s real estate industry, has hinted at a warmer approach toward Mamdani in recent days. On Sunday, he said Mamdani had expressed interest in coming to Washington and that “we want everything to go well for New York.”

During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani presented himself as the candidate who would most forcefully take on Trump while focusing on solving cost-of-living issues in the areas of housing, child care and transportation.

In an interview with NBC News this month, Mamdani hinted at a willingness to work with Trump on affordability issues.

“My problem is not with people talking with the president,” Mamdani said. “My problem is what they’re talking about.

“And so I will be here, ready to have that conversation about the cost of living, if the president ever wants to,” he said. “But if the president wants to have a conversation about hurting New Yorkers, about sending more ICE agents here to terrorize families, about the cuts we’ve seen, whether it’s taking the city budget, withholding funding for city schools, or threatening to withhold $18 billion in infrastructure grants, that’s not something I’m going to accept. It’s something I’m going to fight.”

Mamdani took aim at Trump in his victory speech on election night.

“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it’s the city that birthed him,” Mamdani said. “And if there is a way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.

“So Donald Trump,” he added, “since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn up the volume.”

The crowd at Mamdani’s election night party erupted into loud cheers afterward — and Trump took notice.

In an interview the next day with Fox News, Trump said he thought Mamdani had given “a very angry speech.”

“Certainly angry with me, and I think he should be nice to me,” Trump said. “You know, I’m the one who kind of has to approve a lot of things that happen to him, so he’s off to a bad start.”

Trump finds himself facing Mamdani at a time when activists and political leaders from the progressive left and the MAGA right are seeking to nationalize his image for the midterm elections and beyond, each seeing his story as having the ability to bolster their electoral hopes.

There are similarities between the two men. Both New Yorkers entered primary elections as distant or afterthoughts, barely registering in the polls, only to then defeat the scions of political dynasties with innovative social media approaches and memorable posts.

Asked if Mamdani’s political rise mirrored his own, Trump responded this month on CBS News’ “60 Minutes”: “Well, I think I’m a much nicer person than him, right?”