Trump and Mamdani stun with a friendly Oval Office sit-down

WEB DESK: Earlier this month when New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani played Dhoom Machale after his victory, no one could have imagined this would reflect so soon and that too in the Oval Office.

What was billed as a high-voltage confrontation between US President Donald Trump and Mamdani turned into an unexpectedly amicable Oval Office meeting on Friday, with both repeatedly emphasising shared priorities over past political hostilities.

In the weeks leading up to the meeting, Trump’s aides had mocked Mamdani as a “communist,” while Mamdani had labelled the president a “despot” during his victory speech. But standing side by side at the White House, the pair set their disagreements aside, smiling often and interrupting confrontational questions with humour and praise.

“I’ll be cheering for him,” Trump said, adding that Mamdani might “surprise some conservative people” and expressing confidence that he could be a “really great mayor.” The tone caught political observers off guard and signalled that both leaders see New York’s affordability crisis as a political imperative.

Reporters repeatedly pressed them on ideological clashes, from accusations of fascism to disagreements over immigration and Middle East policy. But both men dodged provocations. At one point, when a reporter asked Mamdani whether he still believed Trump was a fascist, Trump interjected jokingly: “That’s okay, you can just say yes.”

Mamdani, maintaining strict message discipline, steered almost every answer back to cost-of-living issues — the central theme of his campaign. He said the two had discussed rent burdens, inflation and how to “deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” stressing that voters across the political spectrum want relief from economic pressures.

Trump’s friendliness also put him at odds with fellow Republicans who have sought to cast Mamdani as a radical foil ahead of the 2026 midterms. GOP figures had described Mamdani as a “literal communist” and even a “jihadist,” but Trump flatly rejected such labels. “You say things sometimes in a campaign,” he said.

Whether the truce lasts beyond Mamdani’s January 1 inauguration remains uncertain. But for now, the meeting offered a rare moment of political détente, and an early signal that affordability may be the one issue capable of softening even the sharpest partisan lines.