President Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani are set to meet in person on Friday, days after Mamdani, the New York mayor-elect, reached out to the White House to arrange a sit-down.
Trump wrote Wednesday night on Truth Social that Mamdani had asked for a meeting and that they "agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office" this Friday. Trump said "further details" were forthcoming. In the post, Trump also took a dig at the Mamdani, calling him a "communist."
A spokesperson for Mamdani confirmed the plans.
“As is customary for an incoming mayoral administration, the Mayor-elect plans to meet with the President in Washington to discuss public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over one million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago,” spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement Wednesday night.
Mamdani told reporters Monday that his team had contacted the White House to propose a meeting as part of a pledge to voters to “address the affordability crisis that is pushing so many of them out of the city” and that Trump's economic policies were contributing to high costs of living in New York.
In an interview last week with NBC New York, Mamdani called a relationship with Trump “critical to the success of the city.”
Trump, who endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran for mayor as an independent, has repeatedly referred to Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, as a “communist,” while downplaying concerns from voters about the economy and costs of living.
Trump recently hinted at a cooling of tensions with Mamdani after months of heated criticism between the two, saying Sunday that Mamdani had expressed an interest in coming to Washington and that “we want to see everything work out well for New York.”
During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani pitched himself as a strong opponent to Trump and highlighted an agenda of curbing costs of child care, housing, groceries and transportation for New Yorkers.
