Zohran Mamdani Entertaining Donald Trump's Big Ego Wasn't On Anyone's 2025 Bingo Card

Social media users were shocked by just how much President Donald Trump enjoyed his time with incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during their first meeting at the White House on November 21. Despite having been highly critical of one another ahead of and after Mamdani's mayoral victory, the pair seemed to have a cordial, successful meeting.

However, some online commenters think that the long-time New Yorker slyly played into Trump's massive ego throughout their exchange, including a flabbergasting moment in which Trump consented to letting Mamdani call him a fascist. When a journalist asked whether Mamdani still thought Trump was a fascist, the president swooped in before the mayor-elect could say five words. "That's okay, you can just say yes," Trump told him, adding, "It's easier than explaining it. I don't mind." Mamdani then nodded and simply told the press, "Yeah."

Social media erupted over the surprising interaction between Mamdani and Trump. "His entire press conference was like a scene from a bizarre alternate reality," wrote one user on Reddit thread titled, "Donald Trump treating Zohran Mamdani like his only real son." Many netizens thought the incoming mayor was placating the president for the sake of NYC residents. "Learn to play trumps game. Be chill in his face so you can get him to leave you tf alone," commented a second user.

Meanwhile, others claimed that the otherwise shady Trump seemed weirdly enamored with Mamdani, which made a certain amount of sense to them considering Mamdani's charm and Trump's psychology. "Trump likely has admiration and also envy. Mamdani is young, good looking, charismatic, won an enormous campaign race and did so coming from almost nowhere, and he has a lot of momentum ... Trump gravitates towards all these things," wrote one Redditor. That being said, it's not like Mamdani and Trump are going to become besties.

Although some people were rather shocked by how well Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump got along during their first official meeting, the president forewarned an amicable encounter beforehand. While speaking with Fox News Radio shortly before the meeting, Trump promised listeners a "civil" meeting between himself and Mamdani (via BBC). In a rather rare move, Trump also offered his political opposition a glowing compliment. "He's got a different philosophy," he said about NYC's mayor-elect. "He's a little bit different. I give a lot of credit for the run. He did a successful run, and we all know that runs are not easy, but I think we'll get along fine," continued the president.

Regardless, Mamdani and Trump aren't in any danger of becoming best friends. After their meeting, Mamdani doubled down on previous comments about Trump having fascistic tendencies. "That's something I've said in the past and I say today," he said during an appearance on "Meet The Press" (via NBC News). "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," he added. So while he may not hate Trump the same way other celebrities do, Mamdani certainly doesn't agree with his politics.