The Clock’s Already Ticking on the Trump-Mamdani Bromance

What were they doing there? What might have they discussed? What will the time they spent together mean for New York, for the nation?

The most powerful man in the world—the president of the United States—and the man who will become New York city’s next mayor have professed deep hatred for each other. And hatred is the right word. Their snarky, vicious comments and descriptions for each other have made news.

So then, why meet? Why would President Donald Trump and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani—each publicly disdainful of the other—want even to be in the same room?

The actions of the powerful and the political often appear illogical, shocking. The pundit class is then supposed to provide analysis, speculation, and examination.

This meeting is one of the great con jobs of all time as old New York lingo might call it.

Those two guys have absolutely nothing in common, disdain each other and know they will be at war. The only question is when. It’s a war they can’t fight now and aren’t ready for. But it will happen.

And Trump holds more of the cards.

First, the city is facing significant financial challenges. Independent nonpartisan sources indicate a municipal budget deficit as high as $8 billion for the coming year. Law says the mayor must release a fiscal plan. It’s not 1975, when the city went bust. But it’s not good. If things tank, history proves you’d better have a friend or three in Washington, starting with the fellow who not only can blow up the world but can also blow up a New York City mayor. Simply said: The president can bail you out when you’re in a jam, or he can jam you up.

The city relies upon the feds for lots of money. Suppose the president—whose political party now controls both houses of Congress—wakes up one morning and says to himself, that mayor needs a lesson. Watch money for transportation, highway construction, health care, childcare, education suddenly disappear. Some might say So what?, they don’t do enough for us anyway. Wait till they cut and see what happens.

It’s a temporary truce. Today, politically Zohran Mamdani is the star. His mayoral election victory—that of a then 33-year-old unknown State assemblyman from a district in Queens containing the largest concentration of publicly supported housing in the nation—shocked many.

The president is today’s fading political star. The longest government shutdown in history, resulting in suspended health care and nutrition needs for millions, shamed us. This, coupled with a national sense that things were simply out of control and just plain mean, gave the president political indigestion. His party lost two governor races, and was wiped out generally from top to bottom of election cards everywhere.

Worse, polling data—as the nation heads into the midterm election cycle—indicates that confidence in Trump’s economic policy is lower than it has ever been. Food prices aren’t down. Tariffs are killing parts of America’s famed agriculture export ability. And vaunted Republican gains among minority-group voters may just be a thing of the past.

Some say, Well, it shows how much both men love New York. That’s why they met. And they really don’t hate each other. They were only playing.

Don’t bet on it.

The leader of a national socialist group—masquerading as Democrats—that seeks, according to its propaganda, to disrupt and destroy all what Trump and his party hold dear, is smiling in the photos taken of this Oval Office meeting because he won Round 1.

Wake him up and tell New York’s next mayor that the real Round 1 of the battle hasn’t even started. He won’t know it until a wounded Donald Trump figures out when to throw the first punch. Mamdani might think the aged lion may have lost his teeth, but he sure has a nasty set of claws.

Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf consulted on two PACs that bought ads opposing Mamdani in the 2025 election: Protect the Protectors and Committee to Save New York.