WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had a “very productive meeting” with New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

“We’ve just had a great... very productive meeting. We have one thing in common. We want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“The better he does, the happier I am... And we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true,” Trump said.

Earlier, Trump had predicted the two political opposites would “get along fine” at their first in-person meeting after clashing over everything from immigration to economic policy.

A democratic socialist and little-known state lawmaker who won New York’s mayoral race earlier this month, Mamdani requested the sit-down with Trump to discuss cost-of-living issues and public safety.

The Republican president has issued threats to strip federal funding from the biggest US city, while the mayor-elect has regularly criticised a range of Trump’s policies, including plans to ramp up immigration enforcement efforts in New York City, where four in ten residents are foreign-born.

The 79-year-old president, a former New York resident, has labelled Mamdani, 34, as a “radical left lunatic”, a communist and “Jew hater”, without offering evidence.

Mamdani has espoused Nordic-style democratic socialism, not communism. While a staunch critic of Israel, he was endorsed by prominent Jewish politicians, is bringing in Jewish staff in his new administration, notably New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch, and has repeatedly condemned antisemitism.

Trump tempered his language on Friday shortly before the mayor-elect’s arrival, saying he expected it to be “quite civil” and commending Mamdani for a “successful run”. “I was hitting him a little hard,” Trump told Fox News. “I think we’ll get along fine. Look, we’re looking for the same thing: we want to make New York strong.”

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2025