Like all autocrats, Donald Trump is surrounded by cronies who yearn for him to bestow a smile on them. Aspiring heirs such as JD Vance, a whole crew of White House underlings, sycophants such as Laura Loomer, and even Trump’s own children (especially his sons) pathetically crave the smallest sign of fatherly approval. All courtiers live for a king’s love.

So it must have cut deep when, on Friday, Trump lavished his attention and affection not on any of those toadies but on a man they have spent months demonizing: New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is a democratic socialist who has denounced Trump as a “despot” and “fascist” while being lambasted by the president as a “communist.” Trump has even threatened to deport Mamdani. Yet when the two men met at White House, the scene was a veritable love-in.

The photo of Trump sitting in the Oval Office and gazing up at Mamdani with a big, toothy grin has already achieved iconic status. And the image really does tell the story of the encounter. Trump began the press conference by effusively congratulating Mamdani on his “incredible” campaign, and predicted he’ll be “a really great mayor.” Trump added, “The better he does, the happier I am. There is no difference in party. There is no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true.”

Loomer, who is driven above all by rabid Islamophobia, could barely contain her rage at the sight of Trump gushing over New York’s incoming first Muslim mayor, posting, “Wild to allow a jihadist communist to stand behind the President’s desk in the Oval Office.” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade commented, “I think J.D. Vance is jealous. I think the president wants to use him [Mamdani] as a running mate. They really got along fantastic.”

While MAGA anger at the meeting is itself gratifying, the real significance of the event is what it shows about Mamdani’s strategy for pursuing a democratic socialist agenda in the heart of a deeply anti-socialist political system. Mamdani’s socialism is real, but he is also, by necessity, a pragmatist. He faces opposition not just from right-wing Republicans but also from the pro-capitalist centrists who control the Democratic Party. In his campaign, Mamdani barely received the support of one of the two most powerful New York Democrats—House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries—and didn’t get an endorsement at all from the other one, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. On the very day Mamdani met with Trump, the House of Representatives passed a motion denouncing the “horrors” of socialism by a vote of 285 to 98, with 86 Democrats (including Jeffries) voting in favor.

In that environment, Mamdani has pursued a careful strategy that he thinks will defang the opposition and give him space to push his affordability agenda. That has already led him to make uncomfortable, even unpalatable, choices that he thinks will keep both the New York State and the federal government on side—or, at least, not actively working against him. He has kept on right-wing Democrat Jessica Tisch as police commissioner, a move that helped placate Trump. (Tisch is, as the president noted, a “good friend” of Trump’s daughter Ivanka.) And Mamdani also successfully lobbied a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America against supporting a primary challenge to Jeffries from Mamdani’s erstwhile ally, New York City Council member Chi Ossé.

Current Issue

December 2025 Issue

It’s an open question as to whether this sort of realpolitik will pay off in the long run, or whether Mamdani will wind up undercutting the organizing that needs to be done to build a base of power outside the two major parties. And some Mamdani supporters might feel that playing nice with Trump is a bridge too far. But the sad truth is that Trump has twice been elected to the presidency. He’s not going anywhere—and he has the power to either help or hurt New York. So Mamdani is walking a fine line by trying to both denounce Trump’s fascism while also defusing Trump’s threat to the city.

Mamdani’s outreach to Trump has, for now, won one significant concrete benefit. When Mamdani was running for mayor, Trump had threatened to send the National Guard to New York, as he has done in other major cities. The president is now walking back from this threat, telling reporters on Saturday, “Right now, other places need it more. We had a very good meeting yesterday. We talked about that.”

This is only a temporary and provisional victory. Trump is notoriously mercurial, and added that he could change his mind if he feels troops are needed. But his current position gives Mamdani some breathing room by taking the fight about troop deployment in New York off the table.

The other major victory Mamdani won is not in terms of concrete politics but in the discursive realm. As a left populist, Mamdani has been demonized by both Republicans and right-wing Democrats (notably his opponents in the mayoral race, outgoing Mayor Eric Adams and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo). These avatars of the status quo have painted Mamdani as an extremist threat to the system, a covert jihadi, and an antisemite.

As progressive commentator Sam Seder noted on CNN, “Mamdani in an hour was able to essentially blow up the idea of demonizing democratic socialists.”

Remarkably, Mamdani was able to normalize his politics on the national stage without giving an inch of ground on substance. In fact, on hot-button topics such as Trump’s fascism and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Mamdani was forthright.

A remarkable moment occurred when a reporter asked if Mamdani thinks Trump is a fascist. The incoming mayor started to answer by saying, “I’ve spoken about…” Then Trump interjected, “That’s OK. You can just say it. That’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.” This led Mamdani to say, “Yes.” On Meet the Press on Sunday, Mamdani reaffirmed that he thinks Trump is a despot and fascist.

When asked about Gaza, Mamdani responded:

I have spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide, and I have spoken about our government funding it. And I shared with the president in our meeting about the concern that many New Yorkers have of wanting their tax dollars to go toward the benefit of New Yorkers and their ability to afford basic dignity.

And what we see right now, we’re in the ninth consecutive year of more than a hundred thousand school children being homeless in our city, and there is a desperate need not only for the following of human rights but also the following through on the promises we’ve made New Yorkers, and I appreciated the meeting we had and the work that we can do.

It’s a major discursive victory for the cause of Palestinian national liberation that Israel’s genocide can be denounced in these terms in the Oval Office, with Trump himself not feeling the need to challenge Mamdani’s words.

At the very end of the press conference, Mamdani was asked about antisemitism. He responded, “I care deeply about Jewish safety and I look forward to rooting out antisemitism across the five boroughs, and protecting Jewish New Yorkers – and every New Yorker who calls the city home.” Trump added, “That was good.”

Beyond these contentious issues, Mamdani relentlessly focused on his affordability agenda. He talked about housing, food prices, energy prices, and the need to protect immigrants. Mamdani was able to keep Trump on friendly terms by a variety of approaches: appealing to Trump’s own identity as a New Yorker, noting that a significant number of Mamdani voters were also Trump voters, highlighting the trans-partisan appeal of economic populism. The fact that Mamdani is young, handsome, and a winner certainly also helped, since these are traits Trump admires.

Trump’s variability means that he might easily go back to denouncing Mamdani in lurid right-wing terms. But even if that happens, the images of from this press conference won’t easily be erased. Mamdani was able to present his robust democratic socialist agenda in the Oval Office and get a Republican president to treat it as a normal part of American politics.

Mamdani’s pragmatic socialism still faces many hurdles and might fail. But with the White House meeting, it’s off to a startlingly good start.