Trump Meeting with Mamdani Signals Challenge to the Status Quo

NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (left) and President Donald Trump (right) in their press conference on November 21st, 2025. Photo is public domain from a video from the White House.

Hearing Trump say, “I just want to congratulate [Mamdani]. I think you are going, hopefully, to have a really great mayor, the better he does the happier I am." in a press conference last Friday was a complete shock to us here at The Nightly.

​

Earlier this week, popular New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani had a private meeting with President Donald Trump followed by a press conference. Many leftists had extremely low expectations for this meeting; some of us thought this would be a sign of the self described democratic socialist’s capitulation to the status quo, others thought we were in for yet another Trump press conference dominated by bullying the person he is meeting with in front of the establishment media.

​

What we got instead was shocking. Trump was seemingly cordial, or even excited about Mamdani. We saw Trump actually praise Mamdani’s ambitions and congratulate him. This was seemingly at odds with his previous comments about the New York City mayor-elect, which included referring to him as "a 100% Communist Lunatic" and "Radical Left[y]” in earlier social media posts (which, unfortunately, for us here at The Nightly, is not true in terms of our observed policy from Mamdani).

​

What did they say?

​

From the beginning, we were blindsided by the Trump we saw. He took the chance to share his common goals with Mamdani by mentioning that they “talked about some things in very strong common like housing and getting housing built and food and prices.” We know that Trump has campaigned on the price of living, one of his main complaints about the Biden presidency and one we feel is justified, through his campaign policies on inflation and tariffs. As the economy remains the most important issue for voters, both ruling class Democrats and Republicans, continue to spout working class rhetoric to voters- and repeatedly fail to deliver on their policies. This is responsible for the working class swing between the two parties, and why working class people are continuously screwed as a result of failed promises.

​

Mamdani said he “appreciated the meeting with the president, and as he said it was a productive meeting with the president, focused on a place of shared admiration and love which is New York City. And the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.” While we recognize that both candidates have capitalized on the American electorate’s concern for the economy and the cost of living, both have campaigned with very different messages to achieve this end. Trump has championed protectionist and xenophobic policies, which seek to benefit the American capitalist class, under the guise of racist rhetoric and policy. On the other hand, Mamdani has advocated for pro-worker policies like expanding public services, raising the minimum wage, making housing more affordable, and taxing the rich. As well as some rather novel policies like city owned grocery stores, universal childcare, and free public bus fares. These, in our mind, are at least pro worker in terms of what can be achieved under the capitalist system.

​

What did the press ask?

​

In typical Trump administration fashion, the press attempted to offer sycophantic support for the president in the face of what they saw as an enemy. Off the bat, a question from a New York Post journalist (go check out their Mamdani election win paper cover that we have found humorous) asked Trump if he would stop Mamdani from arresting internationally wanted and alleged war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump responded that they had not discussed harboring the alleged war criminal. Later on in the press conference, Trump would claim that “we actually have peace in the Middle East,” which we see as laughably false when there has been 500 reported ceasefire violations by israeli imperialists killing at least 342 civilians, including 67 children, in Palestine since the Trump-backed international ceasefire agreement at the time of writing.

​

A journalist addressed Mamdani’s previous comments about Trump, where he had referred to Trump as a “despot” and “had betrayed the country,” had a “fascist agenda,” and that he would be Trump’s “worst nightmare.” He deflected the question and focused back on affordability, but later reiterated his position on Trump being a fascist, days after the meeting. These deflections from Mamdani were smart and directed attention away from the national drama of politics and reasserted his campaign promises that are rooted in NYC affordability. Repeatedly, we have noticed this tactic from Mamdani to focus on affordability rather than being enveloped in the whirlwind of irrelevant political headlines that are irrelevant to his future job as mayor.

​

In an interaction that has subsequently taken the internet by storm, a journalist asked Mamdani directly: “Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?” Mamdani began to answer, but was cut off by Trump, who said, “that’s okay, you can just say yes … it's easier than explaining it, I don’t mind.” Trump does not even want to let Mamdani answer. We at The Nightly wonder if this is because Trump was concerned for his optics. We hypothesize that Trump feared Mamdani laying out his administration’s fascist actions right next to him in the Oval Office in front of the press. While this seems like a win for American liberals and leftists who accuse Trump of fascist tendencies, we believe it could have been a lot worse for Trump, if Mamdani were to informatically lay out the fascist behaviors of the Trump administration on national live television.