The unlikeliest relationship in US politics just got sweeter

US President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani capped a face-to-face meeting with a surprise joint appearance before reporters in which both played up what has become one of the more unlikely relationships in US politics.

Trump’s party has sought to link swing-state candidates in November’s midterm elections to Mamdani’s progressive platform. Yet Trump has repeatedly stepped on that messaging by openly praising Mamdani, as he did again on Monday.

“I certainly hope he will be a great mayor,” Trump said in a largely frictionless joint appearance with Mamdani on the lawn of Gracie Mansion. “You have to understand, I want what’s good for New York, I want what’s good for the country. So if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor, horrible mayor, I don’t want that.

“I want him to be a great mayor,” Trump said. “And he’s certainly got potential, got great potential.”

Monday’s meeting at the mayor’s Upper East Side residence was highly anticipated for the political pairing who in the past have indicated a willingness to work together even as they trade barbs in public. And there were moments ripe for strife.

Mamdani in their conversation brought up Haitian immigrants whose temporary protected status Trump has ended, risking their immediate deportation. And the mayor during the press conference emphasised the importance of engaging with the press, days after Trump banned CNN, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and Politico from the White House.

Yet both the president and the mayor took care to contain those breaks, with each side highlighting places where they could work together.

Mamdani said the conversation was “productive” and ranged across issues from immigration to federal support for housing development.

“President Trump and I met at Gracie Mansion to discuss the city we both are so fortunate to serve, New York City,” Mamdani said. “Each time the president and I speak, it is about the same topics: how to improve the lives of New Yorkers and how to use the power of government to take on the cost-of-living crisis, to grow our economy and to build a better, stronger New York.”

Monday’s meeting was the latest example of how, even though they represent opposite ends of the political spectrum, Trump and Mamdani have found ways to identify common ground.

While Trump now lives in Florida, and Mamdani was born in Uganda, they are both New Yorkers. More than that, they’re Queens men. Trump was born at Jamaica Hospital and raised in the borough, while Mamdani emerged as a political force in and around the immigrant-rich neighbourhoods of Astoria.

Mamdani has become one of the most prominent faces of a new wave of self-described democratic socialists who have won key primary races in a push to reshape the Democratic Party.