President Trump had a reasonably chummy assembly with the New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on the White Home Friday after weeks of heated rhetoric,
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Trump had an amiable, nearly chummy assembly with New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on the White Home yesterday. The 2 males showered one another with reward and complimented one another on their political victories.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I believe you are going to have, hopefully, a very nice mayor. And the higher he does, the happier I’m.
SIMON: It was a exceptional present of mutual regard after weeks of vicious private assaults. NPR White Home correspondent Franco Ordoñez has this story.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Through the New York Metropolis mayoral marketing campaign, President Trump known as Mamdani a communist lunatic and threatened to chop off funding if he was elected.
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TRUMP: Look, the Mamdani factor is – it is a catastrophe ready to occur. We won’t have a communist in control of a terrific, supposedly free enterprise type of a consultant metropolis.
ORDOÑEZ: Whereas Mamdani described himself as Donald Trump’s worst nightmare. He known as Trump a fascist and, in his victory speech, a despot.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: So, Donald Trump, since I do know you are watching, I’ve 4 phrases for you. Flip the quantity up.
(CHEERING)
ORDOÑEZ: However on Friday, the 2 adversaries have been stuffed with smiles and guarantees to associate collectively on reducing the price of housing and groceries, whereas they talked of discovering frequent floor on thornier points like crime.
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TRUMP: I count on to be serving to him, not hurting him – an enormous assist, as a result of I would like New York Metropolis to be nice. Look, I really like New York Metropolis. It is the place I come from.
ORDOÑEZ: And Mamdani returned the love.
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MAMDANI: I appreciated the assembly with the president. And as he mentioned, it was a productive assembly targeted on a spot of shared admiration and love which is New York Metropolis and the necessity to ship affordability to New Yorkers.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, each have mutual pursuits in making good with the opposite. Mamdani desires to guard federal funding that Trump has threatened to withhold. The president has not shied away from utilizing the levers of federal energy to assault his opponents. And Trump, he desires to recapture his financial message that Mamdani has taken and tweaked into his personal profitable affordability message.
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MAMDANI: And I can inform you that there have been extra New Yorkers who voted for President Trump in the latest presidential election due to that target value of residing, and I am trying ahead to working collectively to ship on that affordability agenda.
ORDOÑEZ: The present for the general public was all sort phrases. At one level, when a reporter pressed Mamdani if he nonetheless thought Trump was a fascist, the president gave him a move.
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TRUMP: I have been known as a lot worse than a despot, so it isn’t that insulting. Perhaps – I believe he’ll change his thoughts after we get to working collectively.
ORDOÑEZ: However a lot friendliness may come at a price. Trump had been utilizing Mamdani as a handy foil, urging Republicans to color him because the face of the Democratic Get together. It was going to be a key speaking level for the midterms, and he might nicely once more determine confrontation is healthier than affection.
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TRUMP: I imply, he is bought views and – on the market, however who is aware of? I imply, we’ll see what works or he’ll change additionally. All of us change. I modified rather a lot.
ORDOÑEZ: However for now, this mutual reward may complicate Republican efforts to make New York Metropolis political floor zero, and it stays to be seen if different outstanding Republicans observe Trump’s lead relating to embracing Mamdani.
Franco Ordoñez, NPR Information, the White Home.
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