Explaining the baffling Trump-Mamdani White House meeting

The art of the socialist deal.

Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani’s joint engagement with the press after their meeting in the Oval Office on Friday has gotten a ton of buzz because Trump seemed so taken with Mamdani.

“There were smiles and more than a few laughs. Compliments, ranging from genuine to diplomatic, were abundant,” The New York Times observed. “And when reporters tried to interrupt the unexpected buddy movie that emerged in the White House on Friday, President Trump warmly placed his hand on Zohran Mamdani’s arm and gently advised him to keep it simple in response to a question about whether Mr. Mamdani considered him a fascist. ‘You can just say yes,’ the president said. ‘It’s easier.’”

Right-wing pundits openly fantasizing about ICE agents putting Mamdani in handcuffs were aghast. People on the left were wondering how Mamdani had made no public concessions yet managed to charm his adversary so thoroughly that Trump said “I really would“ feel comfortable living in New York, “especially after the meeting.” Mamdani offered no public changes in his policy outlook, but Trump appeared to have shifted, suggesting he might not follow through on previous threats to cut off federal aid to New York or deploy the National Guard in his offensive against “communist” New York. What happened?

Some of this was standard Trump fare. Part of my job involves watching hours and hours of presidents wheeling and dealing with all kinds of political leaders, both scripted and unscripted. At meetings that feel high-stakes, Trump often exhibits a looseness and a chumminess with politicians — even those he considers enemies. During his first meeting with Kim Jong-Un, Trump was touchy and smiley with the North Korean leader and said “we met and we liked each other from day one” — the same man whom he had earlier derided as “little rocket man” and threatened to wipe off the face of the planet during genuinely alarming talk of nuclear confrontation. Trump thrives off of being in the thick of things and discussing the state of play of negotiations, and he remarked that his meeting with Mamdani had attracted more attention than many visits by heads of state. Trump admires power per se, and Mamdani, for the moment, has star power in spades. (It also doesn’t hurt that Trump is from New York and has previously dreamed of being mayor of the city.)

But there were also signs of Mamdani succeeding in a project of persuasion. Trump said “we agree on a lot more than I would have thought” and said repeatedly that he was “surprised” by his conversation and felt Mamdan was a “rational” man. “I feel very confident that he can do a good job,” Trump said. “I think he is going to surprise some conservative people actually.” What did Mamdani do? We don’t know what was said behind closed doors. But given that there are no signs that Mamdani offered any substantive concessions to Trump, we can speculate Mamdani used his charisma to flatter Trump and make him feel important and steer the conversation to common ground. Trump said they hardly talked about ICE, but they did talk a significant amount about crime — an indication that Mamdani had probably pushed the conversation toward terrain where there is less tension between the two and where Mamdani doesn’t code as radical from Trump’s perspective. (Mamdani has renounced “defund,” is keeping the current police commissioner, and is not reducing the overall size of the police force.) They also spoke about affordable housing, an issue where they have different views, but one that that isn’t deeply polarizing and there is an agreement on the problem.

It seems Mamdani was able to use his socialist worldview to prompt Trump to see the left differently than most liberals would. For example, Trump constantly brought up that Mamdani said he had won a significant number of Trump voters, and Mamdani mentioned interviewing Trump voters about problems in the city. Trump predominantly deals with establishment Democrats who are scared of their own reflection and defend the status quo — he was probably struck by Mamdani’s confidence in attacking “the system” as failing and his relentless focus on the working class. Trump also spoke about how he felt they appeared to have similar goals but different ways of getting there. That’s probably partially a product of Mamdani’s strategic rhetorical style, which constantly emphasizes identifying shared perception of problems. But I’ve also seen firsthand that it’s a sensation that emerges when populists across the political spectrum actually speak directly to each other. I don’t actually think it’s ultimately true — because I believe right-wing populism is fundamentally a ruse that betrays working class interests — but as a feeling I can see why the impressionable Trump could’ve been nudged in that direction. In any case, I think it underscores how socialists are far better positioned to pick up Trump voters than establishment Democrats are if they know which points to emphasize.

As impressive as Mamdani’s charm offensive was, I am highly skeptical it will stick. Trump is mercurial, often gets caught up in the buzz of the last meeting he was in, and didn’t have to make any hard decisions during what was mostly a vibe check-in about a city he feels nostalgia for. He did suggest he would not be aggressively trying to make Mamdani’s life impossible, but his entire political style revolves around adversarial positions toward his political opponents and only time will tell if he sticks by that position. Once the conversation wears off, Trump is likely to return to his old ways. But I’d be happy to be wrong.

---