This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
President Trump and New York mayor-elect, the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani met Friday at the White House in the Oval Office for the first time. Over the past several months, both Trump and Mamdani have harshly criticized each other. Trump has called Mamdani a “communist lunatic” and a, quote, “Jew hater.” Trump had also threatened to send the National Guard to New York and cut off billions of dollars in federal funding to New York City if Mamdani was elected. Meanwhile, Mamdani has described Trump as a “fascist” and a “despot.”
Many of Trump’s supporters had criticized Trump for inviting Mamdani, who will soon become New York’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. The far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer said it was, quote, “Wild to allow a jihadist communist to stand behind the President’s desk in the Oval Office,” unnquote.
But President Trump struck a very different tone as he openly embraced Mamdani’s effort to make New York City more affordable. These are excerpts from their press conference in the Oval Office.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’ve just had a great meeting, a really good, very productive meeting. We have one thing in common: We want this city of ours, that we love, to do very well.
And I wanted to congratulate the mayor. He really ran an incredible race against, you know, a lot of smart people, starting with the early primaries against some very tough people, very smart people, and he beat them, and he beat them easily. And I congratulated him.
And we talked about some things in very strong common, like housing and getting housing built, and food and prices. And the price of oil is coming way down. Anything I do is going to be good for New York. If I can get prices down, it’s good for New York. And we’ve got them down, way down from — from last year. We have — as you know, I’ve been saying to a lot of people, Walmart said that Thanksgiving this year is exactly 25% less than last year. So that’s good for New York, good for everybody.
But I just want to congratulate — I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor. The better he does, the happier I am, I will say. There’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything. And we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York. And congratulations, Mr. Mayor.
MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.
MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I appreciate it.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Please.
MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I appreciated the meeting with the president.