Trump to have White House meeting with politician he’s been feuding with for months

President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who have traded barbs ever since Mamdani’s mayoral campaign began getting traction, will meet in person this week at the White House.

Trump announced the meeting on his social media site, Truth Social.

“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!” Trump posted.

Mamdani is a democratic socialist, and has denied Trump’s repeated claims that he is a communist.

Trump mentioned the possibility of meeting with Mamdani when the president was talking to reporters on Sunday, the New York Times reported.

“The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us and we’ll work something out. ... We want to see everything work out well for New York,” Trump said.

On the MS NOW show “All In With Chris Hayes” Wednesday evening, Mamdani said his team reached out to Trump “because of a commitment that I made to New Yorkers that I would be willing to meet with anyone and everyone so long as it was to the benefit of the eight-and-a-half million people who call the city home and their struggle to afford the most expensive city in the United States of America.”

When asked what his goal was for the meeting, Mamdani said “I want to just speak plainly to the president about what it means to actually stand up for New Yorkers, and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city.”

When Mamdani was campaigning in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, he said that he was “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in.”

After Mamdani upset Andrew Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary for New York City mayor, Trump immediately took to social media.

“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart, he’s got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!”

In the run-up to the general election, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani was elected, and even suggested that the federal government could run the city if that happened.