Two guys who’ve publicly clashed for months just had a surprisingly friendly meeting.
Gracie Mansion hosted the sit-down Monday, which lasted roughly 90 minutes covering housing, immigration, and the cost of living in New York. The tone on camera stayed cooperative throughout.
Trump described Mamdani as having “great potential.” He also committed the federal government to reviewing the mayor’s Sunnyside Yards housing proposal in Queens, a project Mamdani has been chasing federal money for. Once the cameras stopped rolling, things reportedly got more interesting. Lip reader Jeremy Freeman reviewed footage of a quieter exchange for the New York Post, catching what he believes Trump said once the formal press conference ended.
“I’ll look after you, you look after the New Yorkers,” Trump reportedly said, per Freeman’s read. The exchange kept going: “And we can both make it work. I wanna support you, help me. Come with me to the White House, see how I work.”
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One more line stood out to Freeman, closer to flattery than policy talk. “What I will say, we’ll look after you, but as I say, you’re doing great,” Trump reportedly told him.
There’s something worth knowing here, though: this part of the exchange was never captured on clear audio. Lip reading produces an expert’s best guess, not a verified transcript, and coverage of the story has stayed careful about that distinction.
Trump’s own allies weren’t pleased once word got out. Radio host Sid Rosenberg, a longtime friend of the president, called the whole meeting “grotesque.” Laura Loomer went further, labeling Mamdani an “Islamic jihadist” and admitting she was “pissed” the meeting happened at all.
Mamdani has called Trump a fascist in public more than once, and pushed back hard on his handling of the press. Just last week, he announced New York was leading a coalition suing the administration over a new public-charge rule, one he argues “expand[s] the list of public benefits that might count against green card or visa applicants.”
That history hasn’t disappeared just because the tone has softened. After an earlier Oval Office meeting between the two, he was asked on “Meet the Press” whether he still stood by calling Trump a fascist. “Everything that I’ve said in the past, I continue to believe,” he said. Trump didn’t seem bothered by that answer either, at one point cutting off a reporter’s question about it to say, “That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK? It’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
Featured image via X screengrab
