New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani heads to the White House on Friday to meet with his metropolis’ most powerful native son — a man who threatened to cut off federal funding to the city if Mamdani won.
The meeting will test them both.
For the 34-year-old Mamdani, it’s an opportunity to prove that he can secure his heavily Democratic city’s future without surrendering its values — finding common ground with Trump without swearing fealty to the president. It’s a high-wire act that could define his early mayoralty.
For President Donald Trump, it’s a chance to elevate the democratic socialist into a national symbol of everything he opposes—or to show that even his fiercest critics will bend to his will. Any potential conflict could be a welcome change for Trump, allowing him to steer the media narrative and reclaim control of the conversation after a week of bruising headlines.
On Thursday, Mamdani said he’s “ready for whatever happens” during the meeting with Trump.
“I think being a New Yorker means that you’re prepared for all situations, all kinds of comments, all kinds of commentary,” Mamdani told reporters, painting the working relationship as not one between individuals, but rather, between New York City and the federal administration.
His approach, Mamdani told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes on Wednesday night, is to “just speak plainly to the president about what it means to actually stand up for New Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city.”
Trump announced his meeting with Mamdani — whom he described as the “Communist Mayor of New York City” — in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. “We want to see everything work out well for New York,” Trump told reporters earlier this week, claiming that Mamdani had requested to meet with him in Washington.
Mamdani noted during a press conference on Thursday that it is customary for the incoming mayor to meet with the White House, and reiterated that he saw common ground with Trump: New Yorkers who voted for both of them did so over concerns over cost of living.
Having dialogue with the White House is “more critical than ever, given the national crisis of affordability — one that New Yorkers know very well across these five boroughs — and the specific challenge many cities are facing with balancing public safety against steps taken by this administration,” Mamdani told reporters on Thursday.
Those “steps” from the Trump administration include aggressive immigration enforcement in some of America’s largest and most heavily Democratic communities. Major cities throughout the nation have turned into flashpoints as the administration has targeted them for a stepped-up presence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents amid Trump’s quest to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
On Tuesday, White House border czar Tom Homan announced that the administration would increase ICE’s “enforcement presence in New York City again because they’re a sanctuary city.”
In response, Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said in a statement that the mayor-elect “remains steadfast in his commitment to protecting the rights and dignity of every single New Yorker and upholding our sanctuary laws.”
The issue could be a powder keg at Friday’s White House meeting.
As a Thursday press conference, Mamdani said his conversation with Trump will focus on public safety and economic security.
“I have many disagreements with the president, and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that can make our city affordable for every single New Yorker,” he said, stressing that he’s “not concerned” about facing public ridicule in the Oval Office, as other leaders have. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”
For Mamdani, the stakes could hardly be higher.
On the eve of New York City’s mayoral election, Trump — a Queens native and longtime Manhattan resident before moving to Florida — threatened federal funding for America’s largest city if Mamdani was victorious.
“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” Trump wrote in a November 3 post on Truth Social.
Last month, the Department of Transportation froze $18 billion for two major infrastructure projects in New York City — the Hudson River Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway projects — over the Trump administration’s objections to supposed “unconstitutional DEI principles.”
It could be a prelude of more to come.
Funding isn’t Trump’s only point of leverage. As mayor of the largest city in the U.S., Mamdani will need to obtain a top security clearance in order to receive briefings on national security, terror threats, and other law enforcement matters — and the Trump administration has a history of denying or revoking security clearances of its adversaries.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday the Mamdani-Trump confab “speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states or blue cities.”
She was coy when asked if Mamdani would be able to convince Trump to abandon his promise to cut off federal funds to the city, saying “we’ll see how the meeting goes.”
Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.