Donald Trump will host New York’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday, setting up an unlikely encounter between the 79-year-old Republican president and the 34-year-old democratic socialist he spent the campaign denouncing.
Trump ,who has repeatedly and falsely labelled Mamdani a “communist” and mocked his South Asian surname , announced the Oval Office meeting on his Truth Social platform, even as he continued his attacks on the incoming mayor. The Uganda-born Mamdani, who will become New York’s first Muslim mayor, swept to victory this month with more than a million votes, the first candidate to do so since 1969.
A spokesperson for Mamdani confirmed the visit, saying it was part of the customary transition process. The mayor-elect, she added, would push discussions on public safety, affordability and the economic pressures facing millions of New Yorkers , issues that formed the heart of his insurgent campaign.
The contrast between the two Queens-born politicians could not be starker. Trump boasts of soaring stock markets; Mamdani speaks of a city buckling under housing costs and inequality. His sweeping platform, affordable childcare, fare-free buses and city-run grocery stores , has drawn both enthusiasm and scepticism, with experts questioning whether he can deliver such ambitious reforms.
Trump, who has built his political brand on anti-immigrant rhetoric, recently threatened to cut federal funding to New York after Mamdani’s win. At a rally he deliberately mangled the mayor-elect’s name: “Mandami, whatever the hell his name is.”
Mamdani, for his part, has shown little interest in softening his tone. Speaking to supporters after his victory, he addressed the president directly: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching , turn the volume up!”
The White House later confirmed Trump had, indeed, been watching.
The meeting on Friday will test whether either man is willing to look beyond the campaign’s antagonism, or whether it merely sets the stage for another political clash in a sharply divided America.
