Trump said he would even be comfortable moving back to New York City and living there with Mamdani as mayor, saying he was surprised how much they had in common.

For months, Donald Trump warned New Yorkers against electing Zohran Mamdani as mayor, referring to him as a “communist lunatic.” Mamdani, meanwhile, called Trump a “despot.”

All of that was put aside in an extraordinary Oval Office get-together Friday, the first face-to-face meeting between the two men.

Trump, who sought to kneecap Mamdani during the campaign, was exceedingly complimentary of the self-described democratic socialist, while Mamdani repeatedly talked up his hope that he and the president could work together to lower costs for New Yorkers.

  • fizzle@quokk.au
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    19 hours ago

    I’m trying to parse this but I just don’t get it.

    The only explanation I can come up with is simply that Trump identifies Mamdani as a popular democratically elected official, and wants to share some of that sunshine.

    Still weird as hell.

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Trump’s brain is mush. Mamdani is very well spoken and can easily navigate a positive conversation with someone like Trump. I bet it was as simple as discussing how much he loves NYC and broadly covering some basic economic policy that will make everyday New Yorkers richer.

      It seems obvious in retrospect. Mamdani spends a day talking so the president to get on his good side, suddenly he doesn’t have (ALL of) MAGA calling for his deportation.

  • karashta@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    He’s a narcissist and is easily charmed.

    He sees Mamdani as a “winner” and therefore feels compelled to cosy up to him to enlarge his own ego.

  • dan1101@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    It could be as simple as him demonizing every Democrat by default, but when he actually talks to Mamdani he saw he was just a person, and a charming one at that.

    I think part of the reason Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the governor race in Virginia is because she actually went into red areas and talked to Trump voters face to face. It’s harder to demonize people when you have met them and they didn’t kill your wife or turn your dog trans.

    But after Trump spends a few days back in his sycophant and Fox News echo chamber he will go right back to bad-mouthing Mamdani.

  • gustofwind@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Trump knows a handsome man when he sees one

    And oh how he’s missed hanging out with handsome men

  • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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    1 day ago

    He pulled a similar move with “Bernie bros” back in the day. He sees the rift in the Democratic party and thinks he can scoop up some disaffected leftists by aligning himself (in words alone) with a popular socialist.

    He has no policy positions. It’s all posturing. He’ll fit whatever mold is necessary for that moment. It’s amazing he can posture this much without a spine, tbh.

  • Zikeji@programming.dev
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    1 day ago

    If I didn’t know Trump was a flip flopping erratic personality him saying they have a lot on common would be very concerning lol.

  • SailorFuzz@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Trump has no spine of his own. He just likes the last person who talked to him. See: Zelensky/Putin flipflopping

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yup. I’m sure Truth Social will go nuclear on Mamdani about two minutes after his next meeting with Steven Miller.

  • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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    1 day ago

    It’s triangulation.

    The plans Mamdani campaigned on are going to cost billions, and will require state and federal support to have any chance of success. He said as much himself and I imagine that’s why he agreed to the meeting.

    Hochul supported him verbally and now Trump has too (words are free).

    From Trump’s perspective, if he had done a presser where he immediately shits on Mamdani to his face, and vows to oppose him with the entire Federal apparatus, then that adds fuel for more people to potentially support Mamdani-like figures if for no other reason than opposition to Trump. It also gives Mamdani an easy target to blame if his policies ultimately fail in NYC.

    In contrast, Trump comes out and says “NYC is great, it’s gonna be great under his leadership, he can do it” etc. then later when things don’t go so well in New York (which Trump is betting on) then it’s easier for Trump to say Mamdani owns the failures.

    Its the same thing as building up a debate opponent prior to the event and then it becomes easier to suggest they underperformed expectations.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      23 hours ago

      You’re projecting competence on Trump

      Trump is strong to the weak and weak to the strong. He’s surrounded with people without backbones, both his sycophants and enemies are whiney little pieces of shit

      Mamdani has actual beliefs and is unapologetic. He stole massive amounts of voters away from Trump in Trump’s home city. Mamdani has the kind of mandate Trump likes to pretend he has

      Trump just likes Mamdani. He wants Mamdani to like him. It’s that simple

      • IronBird@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        seriously, Trump isnt playing 4d chess…

        he doesn’t know how to play regular chess

        hell, he doesn’t know how to play checkers

        even before losing what little of his brain he had to dementia the man was dumb as shit

        it’s wild to me just how much damage one random television show (the apprentice) could cause, by convincing so many people trump is actually competent

  • monis@ttrpg.network
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    1 day ago

    I’m wondering if trump is waking up and realizing his endorsements actually hurt people instead of helping them.

    He might be trying to use reverse-psychology on us to get us to hate Mamdani.

    • IronBird@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      no, dude just like shiny things and being in the spotlot.

      mandani was making very thinky veiled jokes at his expense for that whole presser and he didn’t realize, he really is so far gone that he just repeats whatever was last said to him

  • sarcasticsunrise@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Yeah, this was so bizarre to watch. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Trump acting like a proud father, I mean with good reason, seeing as how Don Jr and Eric are the textbook definition of the term “fail son”