Trump, Mamdani bonhomie an unusual photo-op in Oval Office, but how long will truce last?

New Delhi: It was an unexpected Friday “bromance” moment between US President Donald Trump and Mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani, where many imagined a kapow situation like the one with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year. 

In Oval office, across the Resolute Desk sat the President — a populist conservative standard-bearer who has spent months branding Mamdani a “communist lunatic”.

And there stood the mayor-elect – a democratic socialist, who has previously labeled Trump a “fascist” and a “despot”. It was widely apprehended to be a collision between two diametrically opposed ideologies.

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Some expected a frostiness bordering on hostility, a photo-op to be defined by grimaces and stiff body language. Instead, the world witnessed what CNN called “an unexpected love fest”.

However, “while the president has been highly critical of Mamdani, he said he wants to see ‘everything work out well for New York’ as both leaders zero in on a key issue for Americans: affordability”, said Fox News.

And Mamdani, it added, “said that he had initiated the meeting with Trump ‘because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call the (New York) city home”.

Thus, in a meeting that lasted nearly an hour – which was reportedly far longer than the scheduled brief courtesy call – the President and the Mayor-elect emerged not as combatants, but as unlikely partners in a “populist alliance”.

The spectacle, it turned out, was not a clash of titans, but of pragmatic truce. They agreed “on a lot more” than they “would have thought” each wanting the other’s help in doing “a great job”.

Despite occupying opposite ends of the spectrum, both Trump and Mamdani rode to power on waves of dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Both campaigned on the idea that the “system” is broken for the working American.

The two leaders reportedly bonded over “bread and butter” issues like rising rent, prices of groceries, and the cost of utilities. Mamdani’s central campaign promise was a “universal affordability” agenda, including rent freezes and free public transit.

He framed these not as socialist handouts, but as necessary relief for the working class — a framing that seemed to resonate with the President’s own populist sensibilities.

In was evident in Trump’s statement to the media that “Some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have,” specifically citing housing development and lowering crime as shared priorities.

He even noted, with apparent delight, that internal polling showed “about 10 percent” of his own voters in the outer boroughs had also voted for Mamdani.

Additionally, by embracing Mamdani, Trump effectively sidelined the establishment Republicans in New York, including those who had recently called Mamdani a “jihadist” and an anti-semite.

“No, I don’t (agree with such observations),” the President said, said answering a question, “I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again.”

For Mamdani, it appears to be a bet that results will matter more than optics. If he can secure federal funding for the MTA or housing vouchers by stroking the President’s ego, the “sellout” accusations may lose their sting. Whether this détente will survive the first policy disagreement remains to be seen, but for one Friday in November, the capitalist mogul and the democratic socialist found a way to speak the same language.