Both say their focus is on improving lives of New Yorkers

Mamdani accuses US of funding Israeli ‘genocide’ during notably warm meet with Trump

After months of trading insults, host and guest strike up rapport in Oval Office; Trump tells Mamdani he can ‘just say yes’ when reporter asks mayor-elect to confirm he thinks president is a fascist

US President Donald Trump gave an exceptionally warm welcome to incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday, praising Mamdani’s electoral victory in the first in-person meeting for the political opposites, who have clashed over everything from immigration to economic policy.

The 79-year-old president, a former New York resident, had previously labeled Mamdani, 34, a “radical left lunatic,” a communist and a “Jew hater.”

Answering a reporter’s question, the mayor-elect reiterated his allegation that Israel has been “committing genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel bitterly denies, and that Trump has rejected —  and his assertion that US taxpayers’ dollars are helping fund it.

Trump said that he and Mamdani did not discuss the latter’s pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he came to the Big Apple.

A democratic socialist and little-known state lawmaker who won New York’s mayoral race earlier this month, Mamdani requested the sit-down with Trump to discuss cost-of-living issues and public safety.

After months of trading barbs and insults in the media, the mayor-elect and the president appeared to put aside their differences and quickly strike a rapport in the Oval Office, a setting that Trump has sometimes used to embarrass heads of state.

“We agreed on a lot more than I thought,” Trump said after inviting journalists into the Oval Office following their private session. “We have one thing in common: We want this city of ours that we love to do very well.”

Sitting at his desk, Trump smiled up at Mamdani, who stood to the president’s right, and offered his congratulations on winning the mayoral election earlier this month: “He really ran an incredible race against some very tough people, very smart people.”

“It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City, and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

Trump said he was happy to put aside partisan differences. “The better he does, the happier I am,” Trump said.

As Mamdani surged in the polls toward victory, Trump, a Republican, had threatened to strip federal funding from the biggest US city. The mayor-elect has regularly criticized a range of Trump’s policies, including plans to ramp up federal immigration enforcement efforts in New York City, where four in ten residents are foreign-born.

Funding a ‘genocide’

Standing next to Trump, Mamdani told reporters that when he spoke to New Yorkers who supported both Trump and him, the two main reasons given were a desire to “end forever wars” and an “end to the taxpayer dollars we had funding violations of human rights,” along with the rising cost of living in the city.

Trump said he had no problem with sharing voters with Mamdani.

Asked about the Middle East, Trump reiterated that the US was pushing for the “total disarmament of Hamas.” He also said Hezbollah remains a “problem,” but that the US was working with Lebanon to address it.

A reporter claimed Mamdani has accused the US of committing a genocide in Gaza. The mayor-elect clarified that he had “spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide and I’ve spoken about our government funding it.”

“I shared with the president in our meeting about the concern that many New Yorkers have about wanting their tax dollars to go toward the benefit of New Yorkers and their ability to afford basic dignity,” Mamdani said. “There’s a desperate need not only for the following of human rights but also the following through on the promises we’ve made New Yorkers.”

“I appreciate all efforts toward peace,” he added. We’re tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars, and I also believe that we have to follow through on the international human rights, and I know that still today those are being violated, and that continues to be work that has to be done, no matter where we’re speaking of.”

Trump did not comment on the matter, beyond noting that he and Mamdani feel “very strongly about peace in the Middle East.”

Trump was asked about New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s accusation that Mamdani was a jihadist, and whether Trump agreed with that characterization.

“No, I don’t, but she’s out there campaigning and you say things sometimes during a campaign,” Trump responded. “I met with a man who’s a very rational person.”

Antisemitism in New York

As the meeting wrapped up, Mamdani was asked about a caustic protest outside a New York City synagogue this week.

“I care very deeply about Jewish safety and I look very forward to rooting out antisemitism across the five boroughs and every New Yorker who calls the city home,” he said.

The protest on Wednesday night, organized by a group called Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, has drawn allegations of antisemitism from Jewish leaders in the city. During it, participants shouted phrases including “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF” as well as insults toward pro-Israel counter-protesters like “f—king Jewish pricks,” according to reports from the scene. Police separated the protesters and counter-protesters but did not halt the demonstration.

A statement issued on his behalf on Thursday suggested that the event was an inappropriate use of a “sacred space.”

“The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” Mamdani’s press secretary, Dora Pekec, said in the statement.

She went on, “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

The event was organized by Nefesh B’Nefesh, the nonprofit that facilitates immigration to Israel for North American Jews.

Related: ‘We need to make them scared’: NYC synagogue protest crosses new red lines

Mamdani handily defeated Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic former governor of New York, who ran as an independent, while beating back accusations of antisemitism over his anti-Israel stance and support of Palestinians in the conflict in Gaza.

Mamdani benefited from a wave of anger over Israel’s conduct in Gaza among some Democrats and Jewish Americans who had initially supported it but grew disillusioned. That shift manifested itself in spring anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last year that Mamdani supported and politically benefited from.

Jewish opponents of Mamdani have expressed concern about his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan of support for Palestinians that many Jews interpret as a call to violence against Jewish people and Israel. After his nomination, Mamdani privately told a group of business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would discourage others from using it, according to a July New York Times report.

He has said he supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement, which calls for the economic and cultural boycott of Israel.

‘We want this city we love to do well’

The White House meeting appeared to be strikingly friendly, with each man complimenting the other for the campaigning that they had done. They both said they’d work together on improving affordability in New York City.

“We’ve just had a great meeting, a really good, very productive meeting. One thing in common, we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” Trump told reporters.

Trump’s Oval Office meetings have been wildly unpredictable, including respectful encounters with opponents and ambushes of guests, such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mamdani, who will be sworn in as mayor on January 1, said at a press conference the day before heading to Washington that he had “many disagreements with the president.”

Political analysts had warned that Mamdani could be walking into a Zelensky-like situation. For weeks they had traded barbs, with Trump threatening to make life difficult for the young political upstart.

But Trump repeatedly offered his support for Mamdani — even telling reporters it was “okay” for the younger politician to have called him a “despot.”

Mamdani was asked multiple times about his accusations that Trump is a “fascist,” initially answering that “President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views.” When asked again, Mamdani began answering the question indirectly, before Trump let him off the hook.

“That’s OK, you can just say yes,” Trump said, patting Mamdani on the arm and laughing. “It’s easier than explaining.”

“I’ve been called a lot worse than despot. So it’s not that insulting. Maybe he’ll change his mind after we get to working together,” a conciliatory Trump said, adding that he hoped Mamdani would be “a really great mayor.”

For his part, Mamdani noted that many New Yorkers had backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election “because of that focus on cost of living.”

“And I’m looking forward to working together to deliver on that affordability,” he said.

It was all a far cry from the barbs the pair had exchanged in the run-up to the meeting.

Uganda-born Mamdani will be the first Muslim and first South Asian mayor in the city that is home to Wall Street. His energetic, social media-savvy campaign provoked debate about the best path for Democrats. Out of power in Washington and divided ideologically, Democrats are mainly unified by their opposition to Trump, who is constitutionally prohibited from seeking another term in 2028.

Mamdani vowed to focus on affordability issues, including the cost of housing, groceries, childcare and buses in a city of 8.5 million people. New Yorkers pay nearly double the average rent nationwide.

Inflation has been a major issue for Americans, and it’s one on which they give Trump low marks. Just 26% of Americans say Trump is doing a good job at managing the cost of living, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.

The US federal government is providing $7.4 billion to New York City in fiscal year 2026, or about 6.4% of the city’s total spending, according to a New York State Comptroller report. It was not clear what legal authority Trump could claim for withholding any funding mandated by Congress.