NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani 'ready for whatever happens' in high-stakes White House meeting with Trump

Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Nov 20, 2025

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NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said he isn’t worried that President Donald Trump might try to embarrass him during their high-stakes White House meeting on Friday.

“I’m not concerned about this meeting, I view this meeting as an opportunity for me to make my case,” Mamdani told reporters Thursday when asked if he’s concerned Trump — who has disparaged the incoming mayor as a “communist” — could try to humiliate him in some fashion during their sit-down at the White House.

“I’ll be ready for whatever happens,” Mamdani also said, speaking to reporters at a press conference in City Hall Park.

Trump is known to invite TV cameras into the room during high-profile White House meetings. Infamously, Trump got into a shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last February during a stunning meeting in front of journalists.

Friday’s confab in the Oval Office will mark the first time Mamdani and Trump meet face-to-face after months of public feuding.

Since the summer, Trump has incorrectly labeled Mamdani a “communist” — he’s actually a democratic socialist — and claimed he would as mayor “destroy” New York City.

The Republican president endorsed Mamdani’s main opponent, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in the Nov. 4 mayoral race. The Queens-born commander in chief has also threatened to slash federal funding for New York and flood the city with ICE agents or U.S. troops once Mamdani takes over the reins at Ciy Hall.

Mamdani, for his part, has pledged to fight Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda and hire hundreds of new city government lawyers to be ready to challenge the president’s administration in court over any ostensibly illegal actions he takes targeting New York.

At his Thursday morning press conference, Mamdani said he’ll be mostly focused on talking to Trump about making New York City more affordable, an issue he placed at the heart of his successful mayoral campaign.

“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,” Mamdani said.

“I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work on him with any agenda that benefits New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”

Mamdani wouldnt disclose any specific commitments from Trump he hopes to leave the White House with.

When asked if he plans to specifically ask Trump to pull back ICE deployments from the city, Mamdani circled back to the issue of making New York more affordable:

“Affordability was at the core of our campaign and also it was affordability based on a value of protecting each and every New York, that means protecting them from price-gouging in their lives, it also means protecting them from ICE agents and making it clear that I will look to be representing every single person who calls the city home.”

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