President Donald Trump lavished praise on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani during an Oval Office meeting Friday, enthusiastically complimenting the self-described democratic socialist he has repeatedly labeled a "100% Communist Lunatic" and describing him as someone who could "do something great for New York."
The remarkably cordial meeting between the Republican president and the Democratic socialist featured Trump telling reporters he would feel "very comfortable" living in New York City under Mamdani's administration and that "the better he does, the happier I am."
When asked about Mamdani previously calling him a "fascist," Trump brushed it off, saying "I've been called much worse than a despot" before helpfully interjecting during follow-up questions to tell Mamdani, "You can just say yes, it's easier than explaining it."
The meeting comes as particularly unwelcome news to House Republicans, who have spent weeks running digital ads in nearly 50 competitive districts explicitly tying vulnerable Democrats to Mamdani, describing him as proof that "the Democrat Party has surrendered to radical socialist Zohran Mamdani." An internal NRCC memo had outlined their "battle plan to weaponize" Mamdani as the new face of the Democratic Party, a strategy that political analysts note is significantly undermined when the Republican president publicly praises the supposed extremist.
"We spent millions of dollars making Mamdani the boogeyman," said one anonymous House Republican strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were still trying to process what had just happened. "And then Trump goes and tells everyone he's a rational guy with great ideas. It's like spending your entire campaign saying your opponent eats babies, and then your party leader holds a press conference saying 'I met the guy, great appetite, very reasonable about infants.'"
During the meeting, Trump repeatedly defended Mamdani, declining to agree with GOP attacks calling him a "jihadist" and noting that "we agree on a lot more than I would have thought." The president even suggested that Mamdani would "surprise some conservative people" with his decisions, a comment that left Republican operatives wondering if he had somehow missed their entire 2026 messaging strategy.
Republican strategists told reporters their plan to tie Democrats to Mamdani "is not going to change" despite Trump's praise, explaining that they would simply continue running ads warning voters about the dangerous extremist whom the President of the United States just said he'd happily live under.
The confusion was further compounded by the fact that the House of Representatives had voted to condemn socialism earlier that same day, mere hours before their party's leader would heap compliments on America's most prominent democratic socialist.
