WASHINGTON — The White House was seeing red ahead of President Trump’s meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“Tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House because that is who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
Leavitt was coy about what to expect at Friday’s meeting of two men who have been at odds as insiders speculate about whether Trump, 79, plans to treat Mamdani, 34, to a humiliating spectacle similar to his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
But the fact that Trump will welcome Mamdani at all reflects the president’s open mind, Leavitt said.
“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 said.
Trump has repeatedly referred to Mamdani, a self-described socialist, as a “communist” and threatened to yank billions in federal funding to rein in his policies.
Trump announced the meeting Wednesday night on Truth Social, writing: “Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani, has asked for a meeting. We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st. Further details to follow!”
Mamdani, who ran on a platform calling for a rent freeze and free bus services, said he would attempt to focus on affordability issues and that “I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call this city home.”
Trump has vacillated between biting attacks and a more conciliatory posture since Mamdani won the Nov. 4 election.
“He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington because if he’s not, he doesn’t have a chance of succeeding,” Trump told Fox News in a post-election interview, adding, “I want to make the city succeed.”
It’s unclear if the meeting will be open to the press. A closed forum potentially would allow for a more amicable exchange.
Trump met privately in March with New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, with whom he clashed on congestion pricing, and both parties kept their lengthy talks largely private afterward.
Leavitt told reporters Thursday that “I don’t want to speak for the president or get ahead of this meeting that we are currently working on for tomorrow.”
“The mayor-elect will be coming to the Oval Office so our teams are arranging those details,” she said.
“I won’t get into the president’s thinking on it. I think you all will hear from him directly.”
Mamdani isn’t entirely powerless in the dynamic with Trump, who has substantial real estate holdings in New York City, which the mayor-elect’s team could target with investigations.
Leavitt referred to Trump’s hometown as “a city that’s becoming much more left than I think this president ever anticipated in his many years of living in New York himself.”
