The president’s Oval Office meeting with New York’s incoming leader is not open to the press.
Trump, 79, frequently invites reporters into the Oval Office for a front-seat view as he sits down with U.S. and world leaders, but, according to his schedule, the media was barred from his first meeting with Mamdani, the Democratic socialist 45 years his junior.
Their first face-to-face comes after Trump lobbed a series of nasty attacks on the political upstart who mounted an underdog campaign and went on to win the race to lead the largest city in the U.S.
Trump has blasted Mamdani as a “communist lunatic” and “not very smart.” He falsely accused him of being in the country illegally, threatened to arrest him, and warned that he would cut off money to New York if he won.
Why does a Mayor have no choice but to meet with the president? Governor maybe but mayor don’t care if its one of the biggest cities.
I overstated. He’s not “required,” but it’s pretty common for the NY mayor to meet with the president after being elected. Mainly for all the reasons already stated. They may not like one another, but in both cases the voters chose their leaders, so they have to work in the same company as one another.
Ameancow said it better, but I wanted to add that new York could be hit with a hurricane next year. Or a terrorist attack like 9/11. Neither of those are likely, but if it happens, Mamdani wants help from the feds and if trump is threatening to kill him every week that becomes harder.
He has a larger constituency that many governors
Only 12 of the 50 states have a higher population than NYC alone.
Because when you become the lead manager of a huge company’s major revenue stream, you meet the fucking boss. If you’re not going to work together with the larger company you are shutting yourself off from all the potential support of the larger institution.
Despite all the performative and not-so-performative bullshit the administration and trump spout daily, it’s still the business of leadership. You can’t not do your part just because the CEO is a dipshit. People depend on your decisions and management.
I really want to reiterate that what happens behind closed doors is a very different world than what we see reported on. Legal cases aside, it’s largely performative and the Mamdani/Trump meeting behind closed doors should be proof of that. Whatever Mandani said was not his normal mask of optimism and cheerful practicality, he was likely much more serious and delivered a tone that would seem shocking, while at the same time managing to butter Trump up enough that the entire tone changed after.
The public on both sides would over-analyze the entire thing, every word and phrase dissected the same way they KEEP going after Mamdani about words and rhetoric trying to trap him into saying something. Watch again. Watch where that sack of shit reporter tries to drive up contention and points out that Mamdani has called trump a fascist or something and if that’s still how he feels. Trump intervenes and saves Mandani from answering.
They made deals. And nobody on either side wants to see these two making deals. This isn’t a bad thing, it just reflects how our media has distorted our world and how all of our emotions have been made priority over material outcomes.