Trump and New York mayor-elect Mamdani speaking now after meeting at the White House

Zohran Mamdani elected next city manager of young house of york

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Mamdani says it’s his job to improve affordability in NYC — and to deal with Trump

Mamdani and Trump are taking questions now from reporters after their meeting. We’ll be writing up the highlights and also have a livestream of the news conference at the top of this page.

Today's Trump-Mamdani meeting is currently labelled as "closed press" on the president’s official itinerary.

When Trump’s team wants to let the cameras in for some part of his meetings, the itinerary indicates it’s open to the White House press pool.

Once in a while, they’ll open up an event that was initially labelled as closed. So it’s possible we’ll get to see how these political opposites interact, but we don’t know for sure.

Media outlets have been told to expect Mamdani will speak to reporters after the meeting.

Mamdani’s mayoral campaign was almost entirely focused on delivering affordability to New Yorkers, through democratic socialist policies like rent freezes, government-run grocery stores and free buses.

Unsurprisingly, the topic came up again during the mayor-elect's news conference on Thursday.

"I know that for tens of thousands of New Yorkers, this meeting is between two very different candidates who they voted for for the same reason: they wanted a leader who would take on the cost-of-living crisis that makes it impossible for working people to afford living in this city," Mamdani said.

Affordability was already a buzzword in New York before the mayoral campaign.

The cost of living in New York is 70 per cent higher than the national U.S. Average, according to rentcafe.com, while housing is 200 per cent higher.

Mamdani and his progressive brand of politics have been pegged by some Democrats as the saviour and future of the party.

For example, in a recent column in the Guardian, Democrat and former U.S. Secretary of labour Robert Reich referred to Mamdani as the "the brightest light in the Democratic Party" and wrote that "Mamdani and others like him are its future."

That may be exactly what the Republicans want.

In addition to Trump’s comments branding Mamdani a communist, other Republicans have painted the mayor-elect and his agenda as being radical and politically too far left.

They believe his policies are out of step with mainstream American voters, and that a Democratic campaign based on his more-progressive ideas would be doomed to fail on the national stage.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X before Mamdani’s victory that he would be "the most prominent Democrat in America the day he takes office," if elected.

"Voters across the country will be able to watch his leftist agenda in action and know that his path is the Democrat path nationally," DeSantis wrote.

Mamdani overwhelmingly won the mayoral election among young voters — those in the under-30 and 30-44 voting blocs.

In addition to being popular among young voters, Mamdani has also surrounded himself with a young team.

According to the New York Times, Mamdani has travelled to Washington with three aides: Elle Bisgaard-Church, Morris Katz and spokesperson Dora Pekec.

Like Mamdani, they’re all under the age of 35.

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, and his family moved to New York when he was seven. He became a U.S. Citizen in 2018.

The 34-year-old self-described democratic socialist is a relative political rookie, having been first elected to the state assembly in 2020. But he stunned political observers with his Democratic mayoral primary win over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo back in June.

He carried forward his slick, social media-driven campaign into the mayoral race, attracting many young voters with his charismatic demeanour and focus on affordability and lowering the cost of living for New Yorkers.

In the Nov. 4 mayoral election, he won more than 50 per cent of the vote, defeating Cuomo (who ran as an independent) and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

His victory means he will become the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor when he formally takes office on Jan. 1.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered no specifics about the agenda when reporters asked yesterday, but suggested the meeting signalled Trump was open to conversations across a political divide.

"It speaks volumes that … we have a communist coming to the White House, because that's who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country," Leavitt told a briefing.

"I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone, and talk to anyone, and to try to do what's right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states or blue cities," Leavitt added.

Trump has said little publicly about his expectations for his meeting with Mamdani.

One of his only comments came in a Wednesday night social media post announcing he’d be meeting with "Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran 'Kwame' Mamdani."

(The use of Mamdani’s middle name echoes how Trump repeatedly refers to the former president as Barack Hussein Obama, in a bid to cast them both as outsiders.)

But in an interview with Fox News Radio this morning, Trump predicted the meeting would be "quite civil." Despite Mamdani having a "different philosophy," Trump told host Brian Kilmeade he gave Mamdami credit for his successful mayoral run and that they’re ultimately "looking for the same thing" — a strong New York.

Mamdani says it’s his job to improve affordability in NYC — and to deal with Trump

New York City's next mayor Zohran Mamdani says people are experiencing 'twin crises' in the biggest city in the U.S., pointing to an 'authoritarian administration' in Washington and an 'affordability crisis.' Mamdani, who took questions a day after his mayoral victory, said it will be his job to 'deliver on both' for New Yorkers.

On Thursday, he told reporters that he will "be ready for whatever happens" and that he’s not concerned about the meeting; he sees it as "an opportunity to make my case."

"It behooves me to leave no stone unturned in making the city more affordable," he said.

"I have many disagreements with the president," he said. "And I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that can make our city affordable for every single New Yorker."

Mamdani may be there to ensure federal government funding for his city. For its current fiscal year, New York is expected to receive $7.4 billion of its $115 billion budget — about 6.5 per cent — from Washington.

But Mamdani has also proposed a series of progressive yet potentially costly policy plans.

Those include creating a network of non-profit city-run grocery stores that would focus on keeping food prices low. He has also proposed a free universal child-care system and a rent freeze for those living in rent-regulated apartments. And he’s promised a free city bus service.

He has indicated much of these will be paid for by raising corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy.

These two men have repeatedly engaged in a war of words in recent months.

Trump has called Mamdani a "communist lunatic" and a "total nut job."

Mamdani, for his part, has described the Trump administration as "authoritarian" and has vowed to "Trump-proof" the city if elected. He even called out the president in his victory speech.

Yet despite vastly different political ideologies, the two leaders — who are both from the New York borough of Queens — have largely said they want the same thing: a strong New York City.

There has been a slight shift in tone in recent days. Trump predicted the pair will "get along fine" today.

Ultimately, the outcome of this face-to-face could set the tone for Washington's relationship with the country's most populous city for at least the next four years.

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