Trump to meet Mamdani at White House, with big potential political benefits for both

WASHINGTON — Whether President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's meeting Friday is fiery or friendly, political analysts say it’ll be a political boon for both.

For Queens-born Trump, it will be an opportunity to continue painting Mamdani as the leader of the Democratic Party, as moderates within the party try to distance themselves from the democratic socialist over fears of alienating voters.

For Mamdani, it will be a chance to deliver on his promise to voters to confront Trump and bring his message of affordability to a larger audience, Trump’s MAGA base.

"The only two American politicians who have a global brand right now are Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump," said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban development at New York University. "Trump wins by welcoming his ideological rival and continuing to dominate the television screens, and computer screens and the video world that most people live in. Mamdani gains stature by being invited to the White House so soon after his election."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at Thursday’s press briefing declined to say whether the meeting will be televised, but former Rep. Pete King (R-Seaford) said he anticipates Trump will ultimately seize the chance to go on-air with the 34-year-old insurgent.

"They’re both celebrities — I don't know if either of them can resist the camera," King said. "I disagree with Mamdani on everything, but he has a flair for the media, and Trump, of course, is the master of the put-down ... you can’t sell tickets to a show like that."

Verbal fight

For months, Trump and Mamdani have traded barbs — Trump accusing the democratic socialist of being a communist, Mamdani vowing to vigorously fight Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

But for all the political posturing, both administrations will have to forge some level of a civil working relationship as the federal government and nation’s largest city have long been partners in counterterrorism efforts, said King, a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"They have to find a way to work it out," King said.

Trump likely agreed to meet with Mamdani before his Jan. 1 inauguration due to his own curiosity, said Meena Bose, executive director of Hofstra University’s Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.

"President Trump, he likes working with people who are winners and who he perceives as winners," Bose said. "Well here’s Mamdani, who had such an unexpected victory ... so while [Trump] has been very critical of Mamdani, I suspect there's also some kind of curiosity there, to want to have a little bit of a direct understanding of the person who will be leading the city that was his former home."

History with mayors

Whether as president or as a real estate mogul, Trump has a long history of either sparring with or celebrating the city’s mayors.

As a Manhattan real estate developer in the 1980s, he bitterly fought with Democrat Ed Koch. Irate over Koch’s opposition to certain real estate tax abatements, he called him “a moron” and donated to his challenger David Dinkins.

During his first term, he frequently called Democrat Bill de Blasio "incompetent" but later offered praise for de Blasio's work with the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Republican-turned-independent Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire three-term mayor, was initially lauded by Trump in 2007 as "one of the great mayors, if not the greatest, in New York City," before Bloomberg launched a failed presidential bid in 2020 against Trump. He then took to describing Bloomberg as "Mini Mike" in social media missives.

He embraced Republican Rudy Giuliani, tapping him as a key campaign surrogate in 2016 and 2020 and naming him one of his personal attorneys. And he kept close ties to scandal-ridden Eric Adams, inviting the Democrat to his inauguration and supporting his administration’s decision to drop the federal corruption case against Adams, all as Adams pledged to cooperate with Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.

Moss said Trump and Mamdani may find Friday that they share some common ground.

"They are both made for the camera," Moss said. "They are both natural performers."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.