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Donald Trump will host Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday for a high-stakes meeting between the US president and New York City’s mayor-elect.
It will be the first time the two men have met after months of trading barbs from afar, and could set the tone for the relationship between Trump and the mayor of his home city for the remainder of his presidency.
Trump, 79, has repeatedly attacked Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist who earlier this month completed his improbable rise from little-known state assemblyman to mayor-elect of the country’s biggest city.
Mamdani’s charismatic, social media savvy campaign, which focused relentlessly on improving affordability, captivated younger voters in particular. More than 2mn New Yorkers cast ballots in the mayoral contest, the largest turnout in a mayoral race since 1969.
But Mamdani has also proven divisive, and his economic proposals and foreign policy positions have split the Democratic establishment and attracted the ire of Trump and Republicans.
“Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran “Kwame” Mamdani, has asked for a meeting,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday evening. “We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st. Further details to follow!”
Trump, a longtime New Yorker who formally changed his residency to Florida six years ago, has repeatedly called Mamdani a communist. In the run-up to this month’s mayoral election, the president threatened to withhold federal funds for New York City if Mamdani were elected.
He also made an eleventh-hour endorsement for Mamdani’s main opponent, former New York Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent.
But Mamdani — who campaigned on promises to freeze rent on rent-stabilised apartments and offer free public buses and childcare for children under the age of five — was quick to push back, and has vowed to stand up to Trump when he becomes mayor in January.
He has pledged that on his watch, the New York Police Department will refuse to co-operate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as its agents carry out immigration raids in that city.
In a fiery election night speech, Mamdani directly addressed the president, saying: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching . . . I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!”
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” he added.
But Mamdani on Thursday said he was looking for common ground with the president.
“My team reached out to the White House because I will work with anyone to make this city more affordable,” he said in New York. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers.”
“I’m not concerned about this meeting, I view this meeting as an opportunity to make my case,” he added.
The White House has offered few details about Friday’s meeting. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said: “It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House, because that’s who the Democrat party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country.”
“President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people,” she said, adding that New York City was “becoming much more left than I think this president ever anticipated”.
