It didn’t take long for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to identify the political game, learn how to play it, and cruise to victory in dealing with a mercurial and vindictive President Donald Trump.
During an unannounced White House visit with Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, Feb. 26, Mamdani showed up prepared to pitch the president on investing in the city to help alleviate New York City’s escalating housing crisis, and he didn’t show up empty-handed.
He stroked Trump’s well-known and massive ego with something the president has always coveted: newspaper headlines, and specifically, favorable media coverage.
Mamdani ingenuously arrived at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue with mock-ups of newspaper front pages from the New York Daily News with one headline that read, “Trump to City: Let’s Build,” contrasted with a second real front page headline from 1975 that said “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” when former President Gerald Ford denied the city’s request for financial assistance.
From news accounts, Trump, basking in a glow of apparent pride over the headline, loved it, setting up Mamdani for a successful meeting and perhaps an ultimate win with a president critics say is known for his cruelty and hatefulness.
Mamdani says he went to the White House on Thursday to talk with Trump about investing in a real estate project in New York City that includes building 12,000 new homes.
“The president was interested in the idea, and I look forward to the ensuing conversations about how to build more housing in a city that doesn’t have enough of it,” the mayor said during an event the next day, Friday, Feb. 27.
Social media was quick to point out Mamdani’s success.
“What Zohran Mamdani did at the White House today was a masterclass in disarming a narcissist. 10/10 no notes,” this Threads user proclaimed.
“I swear he’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of politician. He out-charmed the narcissist,” this Threads user stated.
“Played the old man like a fiddle,” another posted.
“Check Mate. He’s going to beat the Traitor in Chief at his own game. Its a beautiful thing!!” yet another Threads user chimed in.
Mamdani even went a step further at the meeting, according to ABC 7 NY, asking Trump to release a Columbia University student arrested by ICE Thursday morning, Feb 26, and four other students.
The president complied with releasing the Columbia student, even calling Mamdani to let him know the student had been freed.
But their relationship wasn’t always so congenial.
Trump spent the hotly contested New York City mayoral campaign last year, maligning the Democratic socialist, calling him a “communist” and worse, with Mamdani responding in like even accusing Trump of being a “despot” at one point,
In the run-up to their first meeting in November, speculation ran rampant about how Trump and Mandani’s first encounter might play out, but the two had a surprisingly pleasant time at the White House.
Since then, Mamdani has refrained from publicly disparaging Trump, and Trump, for his part, has not gone after Mamdani like he has almost every other Democrat.
In fact, it seems Mamdani learned the real “Art of the Deal” and even showed Trump how it’s done.
