President Donald Trump said he wants to see Zohran Mamdani succeed, saying after a highly anticipated sitdown that he’d “feel very comfortable” living in a New York run by the mayor-elect and that he doesn’t anticipate cutting off funding for the country’s most populous city.
“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump said of Mamdani in a press conference that repeatedly stressed the two politicians’ political alignment over cost-of-living issues. “I want New York City to be great.”
The meeting was the first between the two leaders who have clashed publicly over their political agendas but are seeking to determine if they can work together. Their talks held high stakes for the governance of the capital of global finance and for their respective political parties ahead of next year’s midterm elections.Play Video
During the mayoral election, Trump repeatedly assailed Mamdani — a democratic socialist who won on a progressive platform — as a “communist,” urging voters to reject his candidacy and threating to pull government funding from New York, the president’s hometown. Republicans have also eagerly sought to turn Mamdani into a foil for Democratic policies with voters well beyond the city.
On Friday, the two men struck a friendly tone, with Trump shrugging off questions about Mamdani’s prior references to the president as a “despot” as “not that insulting.” The pair told reporters that they spent the majority of their meeting discussing the cost of rent, groceries and utilities. The president also said he shared some of Mamdani’s ideas on how to address affordability, including building more homes.
“We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said. The president explained they would “work out” differences over immigration, adding Mamdani “wants to have a safe New York” and that he has “very little doubt that we’re not going to get along on that issue.”
The mayor-elect, whose team reached out to the White House to secure the meeting, said prior to the event that he intended to “speak plainly to the president” about the cost of living in New York.
“I appreciate the meeting with the President, which focused again on the five boroughs and whether New Yorkers could afford to live there,” Mamdani told reporters at the White House.
Mamdani won the November election on promises to freeze the rent on more than 1 million stabilized apartments and raise taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals to help fund universal child care and free buses. He pledged to “Trump-proof” the city to shield its most vulnerable residents from policies he considers hostile to their interests, including spending $165 million on legal defense services for immigrants.
On Friday, Trump repeatedly stuck up for Mamdani against some reporters’ questions. The president noted how some of his own voters supported the 34-year-old’s election bid. Mamdani said one-tenth of his voters had voted for Trump.
Managing his relationship with the White House will be a critical early test for the mayor-elect. If Trump were to follow through on his earlier threats, the loss of federal funds would be a devastating blow to the city.
New York City received almost $10 billion of federal funds in fiscal year 2025, comprising 8.3% of total spending for its operating budget, according to the city comptroller’s office, money that went toward education, housing, social services and other programs for low-income households.
Asked if he was still considering cutting funding to New York, Trump said: “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Trump has made Democratic-led municipalities a target of his administration, sending the National Guard into cities including Los Angeles and Chicago. Last week, Mamdani met with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to discuss preparing the city for a surge of officers from the National Guard or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent by the president.
At the meeting, Trump complimented Mamdani on keeping on the city’s police commissioner Jessica Tisch. Mamdani, meanwhile, stressed that the city’s sanctuary laws allow for the cooperation with federal agents on serious crimes, and said he discussed with the president the concern about enforcement action against everyday New Yorkers.
Trump, 79, went out of his way to congratulate Mamdani on his victory and expressed optimism over his prospects as mayor. He also suggested it’s a job he’d like to hold.
“I always said, you know, one of the things I would love to be someday is the mayor of New York City, being the mayor of New York and especially now, because I think you’re at a really a turning point, one way or the other, it could go great, or it can go in a different direction, and I think you really have a chance to make it great,” Trump said.
