It’s Affordability, Stupid

Journalists expecting a clash at Trump and Mamdani’s first meeting were taken by surprise. The reasons why have more to do with policy than personality.

On Friday, President Donald Trump held his first meeting with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, in the Oval Office. Looking down on them was a portrait of Ronald Reagan, which Trump had installed in February. In many ways, the fortieth president was an appropriate observer. The legacy of Reagan hung over both men’s political fortunes: Trump made his name and much of his wealth from real estate investments under the deregulated, neoliberal policies of the eighties; and Mamdani’s sudden rise to power this November reflected New Yorkers’ dissatisfaction with that same trickle-down economic model established under Reagan.

After the private meeting, reporters hurried in for a joint Trump-Mamdani press conference. The pair had been throwing sharp words—“fascist”; “communist”—at each other for months, and many outlets had been previewing the encounter as a kind of bare-knuckle fight. Fox News billed it as a “showdown with socialism.” CNN said it “could really go off the rails.” But the mood between the two was shockingly amiable. Despite questions “carefully crafted to drum up conflict,” Vanity Fair observed, neither Trump nor Mamdani bit. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job,” Trump said.