Trump ‘Very Confident’ Mamdani Can ‘Do a Very Good Job’

President Donald Trump said socialist New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani “actually surprised” him by how much the two agree on.

“I feel very confident that he can do very good job,” the president said. “I think he is going to surprise some conservative people.”

Trump met with Mamdani in the Oval Office on Friday. Through Trump previously threatened to pull federal funding from New York if Mamdani won, he said “I expect to be helping him not hurting him.”

“The better he does, the happier I am,” he said. “I will say there is 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 of a strong and safe New York.”

Mamdani and the president discussed their shared passion for affordability, including lowering prices of groceries, rent, childcare, home ownership, and utilities.

“We focused on that same cost-of-living,” Mamdani said, “and that’s where I am really looking forward to delivering for New Yorkers in partnership with the president on the affordability agenda.”

The two agreed on the need to lower the cost of housing.

“He wants to see housing being built, he wants to see rents coming down, all things that I agree with, and we may disagree how we get there the rent coming down, he said.

The two agree that more housing needs to be built for prices to drop, Trump said.

Trump admitted Mamdani’s view are “a little out there” but said he expects the mayor to change if his policies don’t succeed.

Trump and Mamdani have previously clashed on ICE raids, which Mamdani opposes. But Trump brushed this conflict off, saying “more than anything else, he wants to have a safe New York.” Trump said he and Mamdani discussed crime more than immigration enforcement.

“Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York,” Trump said. “If it’s not safe, no matter how well we do with pricing and with anything else, we can talk about, anything you want, but if you don’t have safe streets, it’s not going to be a success. So we’re going to work together. We’re going to make sure that if there are horrible people that we want to get out, I think he wants to get them out, maybe more than I do. So we’ll work together.”

New York, Trump said, is at a “critical point.”

“He does need the help of the federal government to really succeed,” Trump said, “and we’re going to be helping him. But he’s different than your average candidate. He came out of nowhere.”

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