Loading...
Loading...
Please wait
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
President Donald Trump said he wants to see Zohran Mamdani succeed, saying after a highly anticipated sit-down that he’d “feel very comfortable” living in a New York run by the mayor-elect and that he doesn’t anticipate cutting off funding for the country’s most populous city.
“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump said of Mamdani in a press conference that repeatedly stressed the two politicians’ political alignment over cost-of-living issues. “I want New York City to be great.”
The meeting was the first between the two leaders who have clashed publicly over their political agendas but are seeking to determine if they can work together. Their talks held high stakes for the governance of the capital of global finance and for their respective political parties ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
During the mayoral election, Trump repeatedly assailed Mamdani — a democratic socialist who won on a progressive platform — as a “communist,” urging voters to reject his candidacy and threating to pull government funding from New York, the president’s hometown. Republicans have also eagerly sought to turn Mamdani into a foil for Democratic policies with voters well beyond the city.
On Friday, the two men appeared cordial and friendly, with Trump shrugging off questions about Mamdani’s prior references to the president as a “despot” as “not that insulting.” They told reporters that they spent the majority of their meeting discussing the cost of rent, groceries and utilities. The president also said he shared some of Mamdani’s ideas on how to address affordability.
Today's show features:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.