Months of sniping melted away Friday as New York’s incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump were all smiles at a White House meeting — promising to set aside their feud and cooperate on the city’s future.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old political insurgent who rocketed from obscurity to win City Hall earlier this month, had taken on Trump in a bruising war of words, likening the Republican to “bad landlords… taking advantage of their tenants.”
Read more: Trump lavishes praise on New York’s mayor-elect Mamdani at warm White House meeting
Washington watchers were bracing for sparks to fly when the self-described Democratic socialist met the Republican leader who has in turn branded the mayor-elect a “communist” and suggested the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported.
But the Oval Office summit was instead the embodiment of civility as a beaming Trump, 79, praised Mamdani’s historic election win, said he could do a “great job,” and called him a “man who really wants to see New York be great again.”
“We’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true: having a strong and very safe New York,” Trump said.
Read more: Trump says will meet with New York mayor-elect Mamdani on Friday
Mamdani described the face-to-face as “very productive” and spoke of the leaders’ “shared admiration and love” for America’s financial capital and largest city.
By dinnertime, Trump had shared multiple photographs of the White House meeting on his Truth Social platform, gushing that “It was a Great Honor meeting Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York City!”
Here’s how social media users reacted:
he’s never even looked at jd like that pic.twitter.com/FMZfrqQg3v
— vaibhav vijay (@_vaibhavvijay_) November 21, 2025
He knew he was boutta cook in that meeting LMAOOOOOOO https://t.co/0TEX8MQuKG
— zay dante (@zaydante) November 21, 2025
President Trump posting pictures of himself with Mamdani pic.twitter.com/8BmSNAEEG1
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 21, 2025
Donald Trump on Zohran Mamdani following their meeting at the White House:
“I can tell you that some of my views have changed. […] I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he is going to surprise some conservative people actually, and some very liberal… pic.twitter.com/owjH59UVIx
— Pop Base (@PopBase) November 21, 2025
I have to admit, I was saying that trump would be charmed by zohran but I really could not have anticipated him patting him on the arm and going “it’s okay sweetie, you can call me a fascist if you want to” https://t.co/btVN2B76ez
— John DiLillo (@JohnDiLillo) November 21, 2025
Trump after being called habibi once pic.twitter.com/Sp4VBXqoun
— GL (@gldivittorio) November 21, 2025
🚨 Funniest. President. EVER!
REPORTER TO ZOHRAN MAMDANI: “Are you affirming you think President Trump is a FASCIST?”
MAMDANI: “I’ve-”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “-that’s OK. You can just say YES. It’s easier than explaining it, I don’t mind.” *Pats Mamdani on the back*
OMG 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/vBnM9dMi8k
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 21, 2025
This is the closest Mamdani has ever been to pork pic.twitter.com/DFzE8BIU03
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) November 21, 2025
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) November 21, 2025