Yes, that happened! Yesterday, NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met President Trump at the White House in a highly anticipated face-to-face that was covered extensively by the press, something the media-savvy President noted (see clip below). The two men, seemingly polar opposites, both ideologically and temperamentally, got along well shockingly well, despite the WH press pool's best efforts to stoke drama. Trump was genuinely warm and cordial, lavishing Mamdani with praise and even defending him against questions clearly designed to bait Mamdani. Moreover, he swatted down some of the racists attacks Republicans like Elise Stefanik were making against Mamdani, declaring "I want him to do a great job." Here's the Q&A session with reporters.
While the media was feverishly awaiting/hoping for a "slugfest" (ala the infamous Trump-Zelensky meeting), what they got was a remarkably affable meeting that left both rightwing and liberal media outlets shellshocked. Reporters were incredulously using words like "bizarrely chummy," "lovefest", and "bromance," to describe what they witnessed between a rising political superstar and a famously adversarial President. Here's a summary of the headlines spanning the political spectrum from the liberal Huffpost to the Mamdani-phobic NY Post:
(Click to enlarge)
Basically, the winners were:
1. Mamdani, who cemented his status as an important new political figure
2. Trump, who found common ground with Mamdani on affordability which had contributed to his falling approval ratings
3. New York City, their shared love.
The losers, for the time being, were:
1. The GOP overall, whose "hopes of running an anti-Mamdani scare campaign next year just took a big hit, straight from the president."
2. Elisa Stefanik, specifically, who is aiming to take Kathy Hochul's job as NY Governor. She meekly "agreed to disagree" with the President.
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