New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump emerged from a White House meeting with nothing but good things to say about one another after trading weeks of campaign-season insults and warnings.
“It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in the Oval Office after the first-ever face-to-face meeting between the democratic socialist political star and the MAGA president who has mused about deporting him.
“I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor,” said Trump, who even patted Mamdani on the arm.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.
The high stakes Nov. 21 meeting between billionaire Trump and Mamdani − who has said a fair system wouldn’t allow billionaires to exist − included discussions on affordability, federal funds and infrastructure projects and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city.
Supporters of the mayor-elect had feared a televised ambush reminiscent of a February incident in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance ganged up on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Instead, Trump freely praised Mamdani, and declined opportunities to criticize him in front of the cameras.
“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump said of Mamdani. “A big help.”
More: Donald Trump to meet Zohran Mamdani. What’s at stake in White House showdown?
Both Trump, 79, and Mamdani, 34, were elected in part by focusing on the cost of living. “Some of his ideas are the same as my ideas,” the president said. “He wants to see housing go up, see a lot of housing created, apartments built…People would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing.”
More: Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani reveals pick for NYPD’s top cop
Trump dishes affirmations after rough week
Mamdani’s Nov. 21 jovial visit to the Oval Office came amid a particularly bad week for the president.
Mamdani’s meeting portrayed Trump, often smiling, in a different light. He embraced Mamdani, a socialist with firmly opposite views to his own.
“One of the things I would have loved to be someday is the mayor of New York,” Trump said. “And especially now, because I think you’re at really a turning point one way or the other. It can go great. Or it can go in a different direction, and I think you really have a chance to make it great.”
Mamdani dished back, pointing to the president’s record support in Trump’s hometown of New York. “There were more New Yorkers who voted for President Trump in the most recent presidential election because of that focus on cost of living,” Mamdani said, “and I’m looking forward to working together to deliver on that affordability agenda.”
“I got a lot of votes,” Trump responded.
– Eduardo Cuevas
Mamdani-Trump voters? They’re more common than you think
During the convivial Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the two New Yorkers discussed one thing they had in common: voters who supported them both.
“A lot of my voters actually voted for him,” Trump said. “One in ten,” Mamdani, standing next to the president, interjected.
“And I’m OK with that,” Trump responded.
More: The number of households living paycheck to paycheck has risen. Why?
President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speak to members of the media as they meet in the Oval Office at the White House, November 21, 2025.
Polling indicates Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won at least some New York City voters who backed the Republican president in record numbers last year.
Around 10% of Mamdani voters backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election, according to a CBS survey. Queens, where Trump grew up and Mamdani now lives, seemed to have the largest flip of voters to Mamdani’s side, according to the CBS analysis.
Mamdani went viral early in his mayoral campaign by speaking to New Yorkers who supported Trump, and asking them if they’d support his affordability-focused mayoral campaign. In the Oval Office, Mamdani and Trump happily agreed on addressing cost of living.
– Eduardo Cuevas
Trump commends Mamdani for keeping NYPD commissioner – a friend of Ivanka Trump
New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch speak with reporters after their visit to the New York City Police Memorial on Nov. 19, 2025.
Trump applauded Mamdani for retaining New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who the president said is friends with his daughter Ivanka Trump.
“She is a good friend of some of the people in my family, Ivanka, and they say she’s really good, really competent,” Trump said. “And he just retained her, so that’s a good sign.”
-Joey Garrison
Trump says Mamdani ‘surprised me’ in meeting
Trump, who relentlessly criticized Mamdani for months leading up to the mayoral election, said the mayor-elect “surprised me” in their Oval Office meeting.
President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speak to members of the media as they meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov. 21, 2025.
“He wants to see no crime. He wants to see housing being built. He wants to see rents coming down, all things that I agree with,” the president said. “Now, we may disagree how to get there.”
Trump said he appreciated hearing Mamdani say he wants to build more residential units to bring down the cost of housing.
“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him – a big help – because I want New York City to be great,” Trump said.
-Joey Garrison
Trump marvels at the interest in his Mamdani meeting
Trump marveled at the public interest in his meeting with Mamdani.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on November 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump congratulated Mamdani on his election win as the two political opponents met to discuss policies for New York City.
“The press has eaten this thing up,” Trump said. “You know, I’ve had a lot of meetings with the heads of major countries – nobody cared. This meeting – outside you have hundreds of people waiting. This is just a little group. For some reason, the press has found this to be a very interesting meeting.”
Asked why he believes there is so much interest, Trump said: “I think he’s different – and that can be in a very positive way – but I think he’s different.”
“He has a chance to really do something great for New York,” Trump said.
-Joey Garrison
Trump says he doesn’t mind Mamdani calling him a ‘fascist’
Trump brushed off Mamdani’s past criticis and said he doesn’t mind if the mayor-elect calls him a fascist.
Mamdani started to respond when a reporter asked him whether he stands by his past criticism of Trump. Then Trump stopped him.
“That’s OK, you can just say it,” Trump said, patting Mamdani on the arm with a smile. “It’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
President Donald Trump meets with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 21, 2025.
Earlier in the Oval Office exchange with reporters, Mamdani was asked whether he plans to retract comments he made calling Trump a “despot.”
“We are very clear about our positions and our views, and what I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Trump chimed in: “I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”
-Joey Garrison
Mamdani says he wants to work with Trump on affordability
Mamdani said he’s looking forward to addressing an issue that both he and the president have talked often about: affordability and bringing costs down.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, recounted what he heard on the campaign trial.
“When we spoke to those voters who voted for President Trump, we heard them speak about cost of living,” the mayor-elect said. “We focus on that same cost of living, and that’s where I am really looking forward to delivering for New Yorkers in partnership with the president on the affordability agenda.”
-Joey Garrison
Trump, Mamdani talk nicely after ‘productive meeting’
President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani described a productive meeting and talked kindly of each other as they addressed reporters in the Oval Office.
“It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
Trump said he congratulated Mamdani on his election win and talked about “some things in very strong common like housing and getting housing built.”
“If I can get prices down, it’s good for New York,” Trump said.
Said Trump: “I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor.”
-Joey Garrison
Mamdani arrives at White House for meeting with Trump
New York City-Mayor Elect Zohran Mamdani has arrived at the White House for his meeting with President Donald Trump, a White House official said.
The meeting was slated to begin at 3 p.m. ET.
Reporters were not present when Mamdani entered the Whtie House.
“Too late guys!” Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, said in an X post ahead of the 3 p.m. scheduled meeting, showing an image of reporters crowded outside. “Y’all are too slow!”
− Joey Garrison and Eduardo Cuevas
House denounces ‘horrors of socialism’ before Mamdani-Trump confab
Hours before President Donald and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani are set to meet, the House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing the “horrors of socialism.”
More: How Zohran Mamdani won NYC: Be everywhere. Talk to everyone. Focus on affordability.
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is greeted by supporters following a press conference at City Hall Park in New York City, Nov. 20, 2025.
The resolution, passed the morning of Nov. 21 with all Republican support and 86 Democrats joining them, was seen as a dig against Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist. “Mamdani calls himself a socialist but many of his ideas are right out of the Communist playbook of Karl Marx & are known failures,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, a conservative bastion of the city, said on X.
Democratic socialism is different than communism, though Trump and others have repeatedly, and wrongly, called Mamdani a communist.
Notably, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat who made a late endorsement of Mamdani, voted in support of the resolution. Ninety-eight Democrats voted against the measure, with two voting present.
-Eduardo Cuevas
Once protesting outside White House, Mamdani gets to Oval Office
Zohran Mamdani protested outside of the White House nearly two years ago.
In December 2023, Mamdani, a state assemblyman, was calling on then-President Joe Biden for a permanent ceasefire of Israel’s siege of Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October of that year. In an Instagram post, Mamdani said he and others had just ended a five-day hunger strike. Outside the White House, they read some of the names of those killed, when the death toll stood at 15,207 people, he said.
More: Trump meeting Mamdani today. What’s his schedule? Can I livestream it?
“Each action gives birth to another, and we leave DC ever more committed to the work of holding our President and our Congress accountable in saving lives,” he said. “See you at the next one.”
Reuters reported the death toll in Gaza is now at over 69,000, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas. Despite a tentative American-brokered ceasefire under President Donald Trump since October, Palestinians have still been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Now back in Washington, Mamdani and Trump are set to meet in the Oval Office, though the topic is not expected to touch on Gaza. Instead, Mamdani has indicated the meeting would focus on addressing affordability.
– Eduardo Cuevas
Where is the current NYC mayor?
Eric Adams, the embattled one-term Democratic mayor, has been noticeably absent from the city in recent days.
On Nov. 21, while Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani planned to meet with President Trump, Adams’ public schedule listed him in Uzbekistan to meet with government, business and religious leaders in the Central Asian country. Adams, 65, has been in Uzbekistan for several days, after traveling in Israel. Adams has been out of the country for a week.
Adams, facing tough re-election prospects, ended his campaign in September. His administration has been mired in scandals, resignations and corruption probes. The mayor had faced federal corruption charges, related to allegedly soliciting and accepting illegal gifts and campaign donations from wealthy foreigners, including the Turkish government.
In early 2025, Trump’s Justice Department intervened to get the charges dropped, in what critics said was a deal for his cooperation on federal immigration enforcement. Adams has denied any quid pro quo took place. Earlier, Adams traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump; he attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC.
Mamdani is set to replace Adams on New Year’s Day, leaving Adams out of a job for now.
Trump says he expects ‘civil’ meeting with Mandani: ‘We’ll get along fine’
President Donald Trump said Friday he gives New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani credit for running a “good race” and believes “we’ll get along fine” during their afternoon Oval Office meeting.
“Look, we’re looking for the same thing. We want to make New York strong,” Trump said in an interview on the Brian Kilmeade show on Fox News Radio. “And you know, there’s such a different philosophy. But I’ll let you know. I’ll let you know over the next year.”
Trump was asked about Mamdani’s election night speech in which the 34-year-old democratic socialist directed his comments to the president and told Trump, ‘Turn the volume up.”
“He has to be careful when he says that to me,” Trump said, but added that he isn’t sure what Mamdani meant.
“I said, ‘What does that mean? Turn the volume up. Does that mean? Let’s go at it?’” Trump said. “I don’t think so. He was very nice in calling, and we’re going to have a meeting – I guess we meet at 3 o’clock today – and I think it’s going to be quite civil. We’ll find out.”
Ahead of the Nov. 4 election, Trump repeatedly warned he would withhold federal funds if Mamdani, who Trump attacked a “socialist,” won the election.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani called out President Donald Trump during his Nov. 4 victory speech at the Brooklyn Paramount.
Trump said he expects to open the face-to-face meeting up to reporters.
“I would think so. He’s a politician, so I don’t think he has a problem. The one thing I notice about politicians is the answer is always, ‘Yes’ – other than with Biden,” Trump said.
-Joey Garrison
Both from Queens, Trump’s childhood neighborhood voted for Mamdani
President Donald Trump’s childhood Queens neighborhood of Jamaica Estates voted heavily for Zohran Mamdani in the Nov. 4 mayoral election.
The affluent, suburban enclave is located in eastern Queens. The precinct including the Trump family’s two-story Tudor-style home, at 85-15 Wareham Place, had a nearly 20-point margin for Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, according to unofficial New York City Board of Elections results. Mamdani received 56% of votes, compared to 37% for his next closest opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, another Queens native running as an independent who received support from Trump.
Mamdani won around 50.4% of Queens as a whole, compared to 41.6% for Cuomo, which mirrors citywide election results.
Mamdani, 34, and Trump, 79, lived in vastly different versions of Queens, which today is one of the most diverse places in the world. Nearly half of the borough is foreign-born.
Trump’s Jamaica Estates at the time was nearly all White, as the New York Times reported. The neighborhood today is more diverse. City demographics data for the neighborhood and abutting Holliswood, where Cuomo grew up, showed the area was around 32.5% Asian, 24.7% Black, 22.3% White, and 15.4% Hispanic or Latino. Holliswood, another affluent neighborhood, is traditionally more Black and Latino than Jamaica Estates.
– Eduardo Cuevas
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, 34, is currently a three-term New York state assemblyman representing parts of Queens. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is set to become the first Muslim mayor and first Asian American mayor in New York City history.
Born in Uganda, Mamdani moved to New York as a child and grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He is the son of Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, who is a Ugandan of Indian descent.
The mayor-elect is married to Rama Duwaji, an artist and illustrator. The two, married earlier this year, live in Astoria, Queens.
–Eduardo Cuevas
A year ago, Mamdani talked with Trump supporters. The topic was affordability.
Just over a year ago, Zohran Mamdani went viral on social media for speaking with New Yorkers about why they voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. With microphone in hand, Mamdani went to heavily immigrant, nonwhite working-class neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens that saw the largest swings toward Trump.
Mamdani asked them about their vote, or if they skipped the ballot box altogether. According to his post, the common theme for their support of Trump was cost of living. Mamdani then asked about the upcoming 2025 mayoral election.
“If there was a candidate talking about freezing the rent, making buses free, making universal child care a reality, are those things that you’d support?” said Mamdani, a not-so-subtle nod to his three-part campaign platform. “Absolutely,” one man told Mamdani, “he would have my vote all day.”
Mamdani has since had a meteoric rise, from polling in single digits, to becoming the city’s next mayor in less than two months. Like Trump, voters will have to see whether Mamdani can lower costs for them. Both, with starkly different approaches, now plan to meet at the White House.
–Eduardo Cuevas
Trump said Mamdani would have ‘problems with Washington’
“He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sept. 29. “Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him.”
-Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (R) celebrates alongside his wife Rama Duwaji (L) during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York on November 4, 2025. New Yorkers elected leftist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor Nov. 4, 2025, broadcasters projected, on a day of key local ballots across the country offering the first electoral judgement of Donald Trump’s tumultuous second White House term.
Why did Mamdani reach out to White House?
A day before the White House visit, Mamdani explained his reasoning for reaching out to the White House to set up the meeting.
“Because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call the city home,” he said. “I have many disagreements with the president and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker.”
President Donald Trump confirmed via Truth Social that he’s meeting with NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to discuss affordability and public safety.
Mamdani’s campaign promises include free buses, universal childcare and rent freezes on rent stabilized apartments. He has said he’ll finance these initiatives by hiking the taxes of the top 1% of income earners ( who earn close to $1 million) and raising corporate taxes.
Mamdani has also said the city’s police officers will not assist ICE in executing federal immigration operations.
–Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Keeping an open mind to ‘do what’s right’
“I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers,” he said on Nov. 19. “ If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the meeting was evidence of Trump’s open mind.
“It speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people whether they live in blue states or red states or blue cities,” said Leavitt.
Trump’s city of birth and where he built his real estate empire is “becoming much more left than I think this president ever anticipated in his many years of living in New York,” she said.
–Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump and Mamdani in chummy White House meeting: Live updates
