Trump Extends Olive Branch To Self-Professed ‘Worst Nightmare’ Zohran Mamdani

President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that he might sit down with New York’s Democratic mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in Washington, D.C., telling reporters that the avowed socialist “would like to meet with us.”

It’s unclear when the meeting might take place, but Mamdani said he “continues to be interested” in speaking with Trump “about how we can work together to serve New Yorkers.” The two men traded blows throughout Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign, with the 34-year-old describing himself as Trump’s “worst nightmare” and the president calling Mamdani a “communist” and a “total weirdo.” (RELATED: Mamdani promises to get along with the cops (the group that helped him wants the prisons emptied)

“The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us and we’ll find a solution. But he would like to come to Washington and meet with us and we’ll find a solution,” Trump told reporters at Palm Beach International Airport. “We want everything to go well for New York.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 11: New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani delivers brief remarks during a Veterans Day event at Volunteers of America – Commonwealth Veterans Home on November 11, 2025 in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx borough of New York. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Mamdani said he would contact the White House before he is sworn in on Jan. 1, telling NBC New York last week that a relationship with the president “will be critical to the city’s success.”

“I will say that I am here to work for the benefit of everyone who lives in the city and wherever there is an opportunity to work together towards that end, I am ready,” Mamdani said of a possible conversation with Trump, who was born and raised in New York and notably started his real estate empire there. “And if it’s at the expense of these New Yorkers, I will fight.”

Trump’s openness to meeting with Mamdani appears to mark a shift from early November, when he threatened to withdraw federal funds from the city if the socialist was elected mayor. Mamdani won the mayoral race the next day, taking 50.4% of the vote to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 41.6% in an election that saw the city’s highest voter turnout in half a century. Trump gave Cuomo a last-minute endorsement, but it still failed to stop Mamdani’s momentum.

Mamdani is also awaiting law enforcement review to receive a high-level security clearance from the federal government that will allow him to be informed of threats to the nation’s largest city. Trump has used federal security clearances as leverage in the past, revoking them from New York State Attorney General Letitia James — who is currently under investigation by the Justice Department over allegations of mortgage fraud — and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted the president over allegations of violating state election law.

The president never publicly suggested denying Mamdani security clearance as he did with the Big Apple’s federal funds, with the city remaining a potential target for terrorist attacks for years.

The White House highlighted the president’s remarks when reached for comment. Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to DCNF’s request for comment.

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