WASHINGTON D.C. (THE THURSDAY TIMES) — It began with a handshake that would have seemed improbable not long ago.
In the Oval Office, President Donald Trump welcomed Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor elect, with a smile and a measured compliment, a tone that contrasted sharply with the campaign trail, when he had cast the left wing lawmaker as a danger to the city he is about to lead. Cameras captured a scene that felt closer to a cautious truce than an extension of their feud.
I want to congratulate the newly elected Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. I hope he will be a truly great mayor, and I believe he is going to do a fantastic job for New York City — U.S. President Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/yIofypd8oC
— The Thursday Times (@thursday_times) November 21, 2025
Mamdani, who had pushed for the meeting, later called it “productive” and said it was anchored in a shared love for New York and a mutual recognition that the city has become brutally expensive for ordinary people. Rather than rehearse old arguments about ideology, immigration or policing, he said, the conversation kept returning to rent, groceries, utility bills and the mounting pressure on families across the five boroughs.
Trump and I are very clear about our positions and our views. What I appreciated about the President was that our meeting did not dwell on disagreements, of which there are many, but on our shared purpose of serving New Yorkers. That shared focus can transform the lives of 8.5… pic.twitter.com/mVneQ0etgB
— The Thursday Times (@thursday_times) November 21, 2025
Trump, who has often used New York as a backdrop for his political battles, appeared eager to signal that he could work with a critic if it meant influence over the future of the city where he built his brand. He praised Mamdani’s victory, suggested they wanted “many of the same things” for New Yorkers and even said he would be happy to live in the city under Mamdani’s leadership, remarks that would have sounded fanciful during the campaign.
For the mayor elect, the stakes were different. At 34, and poised to become the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor, Mamdani has promised an aggressive affordability agenda, including tougher protections for tenants and a more confrontational stance towards landlords and large corporations. Sitting across from the president, he sought not to soften those pledges, but to frame them as part of a shared effort to ease the cost of living in America’s largest city.
Both men knew that New Yorkers beyond the Beltway were watching. The city’s 8.5 million residents are grappling with a housing market that has pushed rents to record levels, food prices that have outpaced wages and energy costs that bite deeper into household budgets. One in four New Yorkers lives in poverty or near poverty, according to recent estimates, and Mamdani has warned repeatedly that the city risks becoming unliveable for the very people who keep it running.
Inside the Oval Office, advisers say the discussion mixed broad political themes with pointed questions about policy. Mamdani pressed the case for federal support on housing, transport and social programmes. Trump steered the conversation towards economic growth, investment and what he described as a need to reward “hard working people” while keeping business on side.
The contrast between the public warmth and the recent past was stark. Trump had previously labelled Mamdani a radical and hinted that federal support for New York could be at risk if he won. Mamdani had openly described the president as a threat to democratic norms and vowed to resist any attempt to turn the city into a stage for culture war politics. Those differences did not disappear in a single meeting, but they were notably absent from the choreography of the day.
Outside the White House, reactions split along familiar lines. Supporters of the president framed the encounter as proof of his pragmatism and capacity to work with ideological opponents. Progressives debated whether Mamdani’s outreach was a necessary act of governance or a risky gesture that could blur the lines between collaboration and co option.
For now, both sides are presenting the meeting as a starting point rather than a breakthrough. Mamdani has said he will judge the relationship by whether federal action actually lowers costs for New Yorkers. The president’s aides, meanwhile, have hinted that further conversations could follow if the political weather holds.
What is clear is that affordability in New York has now become a shared stage for two men who once defined themselves in opposition to each other. Whether that stage produces substantive change for tenants, workers and small businesses, or merely another round of carefully framed photographs, will be one of the early tests of Mamdani’s mayoralty and Trump’s latest turn at the centre of American politics.
