Why was Donald Trump so solicitous toward New York’s democratic socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani when he visited the White House on Friday? Throughout his mayoral campaign, Trump attacked Mamdani as a Communist who would destroy New York. He even gave Andrew Cuomo a last-minute endorsement.

Mamdani then went to the White House and showed respect for the man he had excoriated during his campaign. Mamdani showed remarkable self-discipline and smiled during the entire meeting. It was a charm offensive.

The two men met in private before welcoming the reporters and TV cameras for a joint press conference. Trump quickly realized that Mamdani was not going to engage in a fight. Mamdani was there to discuss policy and federal help. Trump couldn’t intimidate or fluster Mamdani, who kept his cool and refused to play by Trump’s rules. Trump realized that Mamdani had his number and quickly pivoted, flattering the thirty-four-year-old mayor-elect.

“I feel very confident that he can do a good job,” Trump said.

A few times during their press conference, Trump said he wanted Mamdani to succeed and, incredibly, that the federal government would help him. It remains to be seen what that actually means, if anything. Will the US Transportation Department reverse its opposition to congestion pricing? Will HUD provide New York City with more housing subsidies? Will the Department of Commerce or Department of Agriculture offer New York City funding for a pilot program to create city-owned grocery stores in food deserts?

Trump isn’t likely to do much for New York. But on Friday, he wanted to be seen as Mamdani’s ally, not his enemy. Why?

Trump’s friendly meeting with Mamdani is rooted in a combination of both psychology and politics, although it’s sometimes difficult to know where each begins and ends. A good politician, Mamdani “read the room.” He understood Trump’s weaknesses and took advantage of them. Of course, he couldn’t know for sure how Trump would behave, and he probably worried that Trump was setting a trap for him. Even if their two staffs had agreed on the format and the gist of the meeting, Trump is impulsive. His anger and resentments have been on full display in the past few weeks. He’s lashed out at reporters and used his Truth Social platform to attack his enemies with long rants — even longer and more incoherent than usual.

But, like most bullies, Trump doesn’t like personal confrontations (except toward reporters and women), unless he can intimidate them. He probably recognized that he couldn’t intimidate the self-assured, confident, and fast-on-his-feet Mamdani, who just came away with one of the most amazing against-the-odds political victories in American history.

Two words Trump uses a lot are “winner” and “loser.” He likes winners. When he wants to attack an enemy or opponent, he calls them a “loser.” It’s one of his favorite words. He also attacks his opponents’ intelligence. Above all, Trump likes to be both feared and liked. He enjoys intimidating people, but he also enjoys being flattered. See how he’s intimidated his own cabinet members into embarrassing, sycophantic displays in which they praise him in front of TV cameras him in ways that he loves.

Let’s not forget the context and the timing. Trump’s popularity ratings are at an all-time low. His poll numbers are cratering. A significant majority of Americans oppose his policies, his corruption, his indifference to their economic hard times, and his opulent, Gilded-Age spending, including his illegal destruction of the East Wing of the White House.

There are now more than 250 democratic socialists in public office in the United States, from city councils to Congress, the highest number since around 1912. There are thousands of progressive office holders who don’t call themselves socialists but have overlapping policy agendas. On November 4, in addition to Mamdani, Seattle voters Seattle elected socialist Katie Wilson as mayor; Buffalo voters elected Sean Ryan, a progressive former labor lawyer, as mayor; and even moderate Democrats like New Jersey governor-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia governor-elect Abigail Spanberger won their races by attacking Trump, the billionaire class, the widening wealth gap, and the difficulties ordinary families have in making ends meet. The fact that Mamdani was only one of many liberal and left Democrats who won their elections earlier this month no doubt rankles Trump, because he knows that these voters were not just pro-Democrat, but anti-Trump.

One of Trump’s few pleasures is being on stage at MAGA rallies and events where the audience loves him. Whenever he needs a psychological boost, his staff schedules a MAGA rally (or a talk to people who own McDonald’s franchises) where he can rant and rave for over an hour and get the applause he desperately needs. But now, even some MAGA Republicans are abandoning the Trump ship because they don’t want to be closely associated with the president when they run for reelection. A growing number among the MAGA rank and file are angry at Trump over the Epstein scandal. And maybe worst of all, Trump was booed at a football game recently.

Trump must know that the Democrats are likely to win a majority of House seats in next year’s midterms, which will blunt much of his agenda. That’s why he’s been so desperate to get Republican governors to add more Republican House districts. But many aren’t complying. For example, Indiana, a Republican stronghold, said “no thanks” when Trump asked them to redraw the Congressional maps.

Trump must be wallowing in self-pity right now. He needed, more than anything else, some good photo ops and some flattery. Mamdani, who is more intelligent, strategic, and disciplined than Trump, accommodated him.

It appeared that Trump was starstruck. Although Trump disagrees with everything Mamdani stands for, he can’t deny that Mamdani is a “winner.” He’s smart, good looking, and charismatic. To Trump, he came out of nowhere and defeated New York’s billionaire class. Trump had to be impressed with that accomplishment. Trump also knows that, for the moment, Mamdani is a phenomenon, the darling of the mainstream media, even though many are skeptical of his agenda.

Trump even threw Mamdani a lifeline. When a reporter asked Mamdani, “You’ve called the president a fascist, do you still think he is?” the mayor-elect hesitated to answer. Then Trump smiled and told him “That’s OK. You can just say yes. That’s easier. It’s easier than explaining.” When a reporter reminded Mamdani that during the campaign he had called Trump “despot,” Trump interrupted: “I’ve been called much worse than a despot. So it’s not that insulting.” It showed that even the constantly angry and scowling Trump has a sense of humor. He wasn’t snarky.

Reporter: Are affirming that you think Trump is a fascist?

Mamdani: We’ve spoken about—

Trump: That’s ok, you can just say it. pic.twitter.com/GVkFiGOvjH

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 21, 2025

Mamdani was astute enough to find things that he and Trump agreed on. Trump pledged to lower prices and make America more affordable. He has failed to deliver on those promises, but Mamdani knows that if he’s able to make New York City more affordable, Trump will claim some of the credit. Explaining his victory, Mamdani said: “We spoke to all of these Trump voters, and they said again their biggest concerns were affordability.” It is likely that Mamdani talked about this with Trump before their public press conference, explaining to the president how he won or increased his margins in parts of New York that had moved toward Trump.

With Mamdani at his side, Trump said, “Some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have,” “We agree on a lot more than I would’ve thought,” and “I think this mayor can do some things that are going to be really great.” Trump noted: “He wants to see no crime. He wants to see housing being built. He wants to see rents coming down, all the things that I agree with. We may disagree on how we get there.” When a reporter reminded Trump that during Mamdani’s campaign he threatened to cut funding to New York if the socialist activist was elected, the president downplayed it. “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump said.

They both acknowledged that in their private meeting prior to the press conference, the two of them had discussed Mamdani’s opposition to ICE operations in New York. Mamdani said, “We discussed ICE and New York City, and I spoke about how the laws that we have in New York City allow for New York City government to speak to the federal administration for about 170 serious crimes. The concerns that many New Yorkers have are around the enforcement of immigration laws on New Yorkers across the five boroughs and, most recently, we’re talking about a mother and her two children, how this has very little to do with [such enforcement].”

Trump responded: “What we did is, we discussed crime. More than ICE, per se, we discussed crime. And he doesn’t want to see crime, and I don’t want to see crime, and I have very little doubt that we’re not going to get along on that issue.” Both men made their disagreements clear, but Trump actually showed some discipline and restraint.

As New York mayor, Mamdani has an extremely hard task. He must run an administration that focuses on civic housekeeping — collecting the trash, fixing the potholes, making sure parks and playgrounds are maintained, and guaranteeing that schools and hospitals have the resources they need and that police respond quickly to 911 calls. He wants to raise taxes on the superrich, provide free bus service and universal pre-K education. To make all this happen, he has to work with Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature, because the city lacks the authority and money to adopt many of his ideas, which the real estate and finance lobby groups will try to obstruct. Can Mamdani rally the state’s liberals and progressives to push Governor Hochul and state legislators to embrace his agenda? Will Trump send his federal stormtroopers to New York City to kidnap, arrest, and detain immigrants?

Trump and Mamdani take photo together in front of to FDR portrait

(Mamdani said during the mayoral debate FDR was his favorite president iirc) pic.twitter.com/2AXpMczsmv

— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) November 22, 2025

From now through the midterms, and perhaps through 2028, the Republican Party will try to make Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party, a tactic intended to discredit its candidates in swing races as socialists. But on Friday, with both men understanding that it would be good for both of them to say nice things and show mutual respect, that approach was thrown into question. How can the GOP use Mamdani to attack the Democrats when Trump posted several photos of the meeting on TruthSocial Friday night and wrote: “It was a Great Honor meeting Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York City”?

That amiability might not last long. But on Friday, it made for an amazing show.