Zohran Mamdani says he still believes Trump is a 'fascist' and a 'despot' after White House meeting

[Thiệu Ngô]

The New York mayor-elect said that while he does believe Trump is a fascist, he still plans on working with the White House on New Yorkers' behalf.

By Alexandra Marquez

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Saturday that he still believes President Donald Trump is a “fascist” and a “despot,” but he viewed their first face-to-face meeting at the White House on Friday as an “opportunity” to work together on lowering the cost of living for New Yorkers.

After months of trading insults during the campaign, the two were friendly during the meeting, with the president telling reporters he’ll be “cheering” for Mamdani, and the mayor-elect calling the meeting “productive.”

Following their meeting, Mamdani was asked by reporters if he stood by his decision to call Trump a “fascist” during his campaign.

“That’s OK, you can just say it,” Trump told him, jokingly. “It’s easier, it’s easier than explaining it.”

On Saturday, Mamdani told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that he does still believe the president is a fascist.

“After President Trump said that, I said, ‘Yes,’” Mamdani said.

He added, “That’s something I’ve said in the past and I say today. And I think what I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment, and we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on a shared analysis of an affordability crisis for New Yorkers.”

Mamdani referred to other past negative comments about Trump, telling Welker, “Everything that I’ve said in the past, I continue to believe.”

“I’m not coming into the Oval Office to make a point or make a stand. I’m coming in there to deliver for New Yorkers,” he added.

The mayor-elect also spoke about his attitude going into the meeting and why it ended up so friendly.

“I thought again and again about what it would mean for New Yorkers if we could establish a productive relationship that would focus on the issues that those New Yorkers stay up late at night thinking about,” rather than keep trading barbs, Mamdani told Welker.

“When you actually ask New Yorkers and you listen to them, you hear it come back to the issues that animated not just the conversation the president and I had with the press after our meeting, but frankly, in the meeting itself,” Mamdani added.

The mayor-elected pointed to Trump’s own campaign message last year, which included promises to lower costs for Americans on Day 1 of his second term.

On Saturday, Mamdani said he went out of his way during the mayoral campaign to speak to New Yorkers living in the Bronx and Queens who had voted for Trump in 2024.

“I shared with the president that when I asked those New Yorkers why did they vote for the president, they told me again and again, it was cost of living, cost of living, cost of living,” the mayor-elect said. “And when the president and I were speaking, we were speaking about what is preventing from delivering on that affordability agenda.”

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Trump frequently bashed Mamdani online, calling him a “communist lunatic” and threatening to cut off federal funding for New York City if voters elected Mamdani, who refers to himself as a democratic socialist. Mamdani often shot back, once calling Trump a “despot.”

On Friday, after reporters asked the pair about that particular insult, the president said, “I’ve been called much worse than a despot,” adding, “I think he’ll change his mind after we get to working together.”

On the eve of the election, Trump even endorsed Mamdani’s strongest opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat-turned-independent who ran in the general election after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.

In his victory speech, Mamdani spoke forcefully against the Trump administration, promising that “New York will be the light” in political darkness and telling Trump to “turn the volume up.”

On Sunday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett spoke about the Trump-Mamdani meeting, saying that Trump plans to work with the new mayor on affordability but that “none of those [policies] really jump off the page for me as really strong ideas.”

Still, Hassett added, "I think that if Mamdani cares as much as he appears to for the people of New York, President Trump obviously does, I think that there’s a lot of positive work that can be done together."

Mamdani said Saturday that he and the president also spoke about Trump’s threats to send National Guard troops into New York City, as he’s done in several other major Democratic-led cities in recent months.

Mamdani didn’t answer questions about whether Trump ruled out the possibility of sending troops to New York City, but said, “What I told him is that what separates New York City from anywhere else in the country is we have the NYPD, and I trust the NYPD to deliver public safety, and to me, that is something that I know that they can do, that they have done, and they will continue to do under my leadership.”

Asked at the White House on Saturday whether he planned to send troops to New York City, Trump said simply, “If they need it.”

“Right now, other places need it more, but if they need — we had a very good meeting yesterday. We talked about that, but if they need it, I would do it,” Trump told reporters.

On Sunday, Hassett also addressed Trump's threats during the campaign to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani was elected.

"Well, it feels like he doesn’t mean it now, and I guess it — we’ll have to wait and see what Mamdani does," Hassett said.

One of Mamdani’s key campaign promises was to raise taxes on the city’s highest earners to fund key policy objectives. To do so, he’ll need the blessing of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators in Albany.

The mayor-elect didn’t answer questions about whether Hochul has committed to helping him raise taxes, but said the two are both committed to making New York City more affordable.

“I think she’ll work with me to deliver on affordability. I think raising taxes make the most sense,” Mamdani said. “If there’s any alternatives that raise the same amount of money, I’m open.”

On Saturday, Mamdani also spoke about his relationship with the nation’s Democratic leaders.

In the months leading up to the election, many were hesitant to endorse the self-described democratic socialist. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., never endorsed Mamdani, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., only did so less than two weeks before Election Day.

Still, Mamdani last week urged members of New York’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter not to endorse a primary challenger to Jeffries.

And on Saturday, Mamdani told “Meet the Press” that he supports Jeffries becoming the speaker of the House if Democrats retake the majority in the 2026 midterm elections.

Mamdani also spoke about his conversation with former President Barack Obama after his victory, saying the two spoke about “the importance of what it looks like, not only to inspire hope, but to sustain it, and then to deliver on it.”