After months of calling New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a “communist,” President Donald Trump praised him as “a really great mayor” following a private Oval Office meeting. Trump told reporters, “I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor — the better he does, the happier I am.” He added, “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.”

Mamdani called the meeting “productive” and “focused on a place of shared admiration and love” for New York City. He highlighted affordability issues, saying, “We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities. We spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out… I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers.”

During a Q&A with the press, both men deflected past insults. Trump suggested Mamdani “is going to surprise some conservative people,” while Mamdani’s earlier comments calling Trump a “despot” were met with, “I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”

The meeting marked a dramatic reversal from Trump’s previous attacks, which had focused on Mamdani’s Bernie Sanders-style socialist politics and even included threats to withhold federal funds from New York. Trump now praised Mamdani’s unexpected primary win, saying, “He’s different than you know, your average candidate — he came out of nowhere… It’s an amazing thing that he did.”

Acknowledging inevitable disagreements, Trump expressed optimism: “I don’t care about affiliations or parties or anything else. I want to see if this city could be unbelievable. If he could be a spectacular success, I’d be very happy.”