President Donald Trump will host New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office this afternoon for their first face-to-face meeting, bringing together two leaders who have traded harsh rhetoric for months.
The encounter follows Mamdani’s landslide victory last month with over 50% of the vote and comes despite Trump’s previous threats to withhold federal funding from the nation’s largest city and his description of the incoming mayor as a “communist lunatic.”
The Trump administration has applied pressure in recent weeks, including signals of increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in New York and the withdrawal of federal support for major infrastructure projects such as the Gateway Tunnel and Second Avenue subway.
Some Republican lawmakers have questioned Mamdani’s citizenship despite his naturalization in 2018 after immigrating from Uganda as a child.
Hours before the meeting, the House of Representatives passed a Republican-led resolution denouncing “the horrors of socialism” by a vote of 285-98.
Trump has recently struck a more conciliatory tone, telling Fox News he wants the new mayor to succeed because “I love New York,” while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized the president’s willingness to engage across political lines.
Mamdani, who initiated the outreach for the meeting, has framed the discussion as a chance to secure federal cooperation for his affordability agenda, which includes free city buses, rent freezes for over one million stabilized units, universal childcare, and government-run grocery stores in each borough.
He spent Thursday consulting with Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others to prepare.
Despite the ideological gulf, exit polling showed 10% of Trump’s 2024 voters in New York also backed Mamdani, highlighting some overlap in populist overlap.
The White House has not disclosed additional attendees for the closed-door session.