Mamdani keeps the word ‘fascist’ on Trump even after a friendly White House meeting

Zohran Mamdani is not softening his language just because the optics improved.

Fresh off a surprisingly cordial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, New York City’s mayor-elect said he still believes the US president is a fascist, and made it clear he sees no contradiction in holding that view while seeking cooperation.

“That’s something that I’ve said in the past; I say it today,” Mamdani told NBC News, signalling that political pragmatism doesn’t mean rhetorical retreat.

The exchange comes after months of open hostility between the two men. Trump had previously labelled Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and even floated the idea of deporting the Ugandan-born New Yorker following his election victory. Mamdani, in turn, accused Trump of attacking democracy.

Yet their meeting this week struck a notably different tone. When a reporter pressed Mamdani on whether he still viewed Trump as a fascist, the president unexpectedly intervened.

“That’s OK. You can just say it. That’s easier,” Trump told him. “It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

Mamdani later offered a more measured reflection on the encounter, describing it as direct but constructive.

“[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 have brought us to this moment,” he said.

He added that the discussion repeatedly returned to core issues that defined his campaign: “the cost of housing, cost of childcare, the cost of groceries, the cost of utilities.”

Trump, who had earlier threatened to slash federal funding to New York and deploy the National Guard, recalibrated his tone as well. He praised Mamdani’s historic win and framed the meeting in cooperative terms.

“We’ve just had a great … very productive meeting. We have one thing in common: we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” Trump said. “We are going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true: having a strong and very safe New York.”