R. Nesbitt | Red Phoenix correspondent | Maryland–

On Friday, Nov. 21, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met with President Donald Trump in the White House for a very contentious conference. The media flurry was, as Trump himself pointed out, intense, saying: “I’ve had a lot of meetings with the heads of major countries, nobody cared. This meeting — you people have gone crazy.”

Through the course of the Mayoral election, serious barbs were traded between Trump and Mamdani. Trump, with particular venom, claimed that Mamdani is not a U.S. citizen (he is), that he is a “communist” (he isn’t), and that he could potentially be deported if he attempts to interfere with ICE operations in NYC. The working class must not allow that to happen. Trump-aligned pundits have alleged all manner of terrorist sympathies and conspiracies with Mamdani and his campaign, with some figures fear-mongering the election of a left-wing Muslim candidate to the Mayorality of New York where the Twin Towers were infamously destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, when Mamdani was only nine years old. 

Mamdani for his part distinguished himself throughout the campaign as being the only candidate who would be able to “stand up to Donald Trump,” who did not join ranks with Trump on the fervent militarization of the police, on xenophobia towards NYC’s proud and vast network of migrant communities, and who did not condone the White House’s 75-year mandate to destroy the Palestinian nation for the benefit of Zionist colonialism. On the eve of the election, Trump admitted that Mamdani had a good chance of winning while threatening to cut federal funding for NYC, but threw his support behind Democratic party boss Andrew Cuomo all the same. With a veritable triumph on election day (thanks in no small part to NYC’s ranked choice voting) Mamdani declared, “President Trump, I know you’re listening, turn the volume up!” 

In the weeks following his victory, Mamdani has conducted community work, helped to feed disadvantaged children of working families, and responded positively to Donald Trump’s overtures for a meeting to “work something out” between the two ostensibly opposed New York politicians.

The meeting was noted for a bizarrely candid and seemingly chummy tone. As reporters grilled Mamdani on the very method of his transit from NYC to DC, scathing him for using air travel over a bus or train, Trump strangely jumped to his defense citing the impracticality of driving from NYC to DC (if only someone was around to break such a shoddy system and its infrastructure).

More telling was the press’ dart-throwing on Mamdani’s bandying of the word “fascist” to describe Trump. Although Mamdani laughed sheepishly and began to rattle off a diplomatic answer, Trump interrupted and said, “That’s okay, you can just say yes. I don’t mind. It’s easier than explaining.” He added, “I’ve been called worse than a despot.”

The lack of denial should be incredibly alarming. No politician with a claim to democratic legitimacy should feel comfortable being compared to the most barbarous and bloodthirsty manifestation of capitalist decay. Although Trump speculated that he would not get along with Mamdani on the issue of crime, he said he “would feel very safe in New York with [Mamdani].”

Throughout the conference, both Trump and Mamdani shied away from confrontation and emphasized their “common ground.” Some notable comments from Trump included: “I think he’s going to surprise a lot of conservative people,” “Some of his ideas are actually ideas that I have,” “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” and, “I see myself helping more than hurting him.” The last quotation was in reference to the possibility of Trump cutting federal funding for NYC. It is important to note that Trump highlighted it as a possibility but downplayed the probability before Mamdani has officially entered office.

Mamdani, in turn, could not bring himself to say that New Yorkers love Trump, but did admit that “more New Yorkers voted for Trump in 2024 against 2020 because of issues like affordability.” While this is true, it has not been joined with a repudiation of Trump’s right-wing demagoguery while policies like tariffs and inflationary spending have actually driven up the cost of living, which is inevitable in the death throes of the capitalist system under any administration. 

In the days following that strange conference, Mamdani reiterated his belief that Trump is a fascist. And Trump has not ruled out the possibility of deploying the National Guard to NYC, saying “other cities need it more right now” — referring to the “killing fields” of Portland and Chicago no doubt, where peaceful and, at the moment, lawful protests abound.

Fundamentally, the notion of Mamdani and Trump being able to convince one another of their perspectives is laughable, but a sharp exposure has been made. Mamdani is perhaps the best that can be won from electoralism under capital. All Democrats, if they have not sold their virtue to the highest donor, would be powerless in the face of a President who has issued record-breaking Executive Orders, who constantly defies the Judicial Branch, who has influenced Congress even out of office, who is considering a third term, who tried even to overthrow the election results of 2020 and not only got away with it, but rode that pathetic excuse for martyrdom to a second term.

Trump is a careerist. He has seen the popularity of Mamdani, knows how he is reviled even if he dupes himself to ignorance, and seeks to ride the coattails of a young and popular politician even so seemingly opposed to his own agenda. The threat that Trump poses for this local victory of the popular will always exist; he can always cut funding, always send in the National Guard, and what can stop him from arresting and deposing Mamdani if he so chooses?

On the other hand, it is unforgivable but characteristic of the Democratic party to try and bargain with the devil, and Mamdani, who has walked back his support for Palestinian resistance, who recognizes the “right” for Zionist Israel to exist, who has allowed the Trump-loving Police Commissioner Tisch to remain in office, has to be criticized not only for personal failings, but also as symptomatic to a system that takes the popular will for change and churns out compromise, defeat, and horror. 

While there is great banality in a pleasant meeting between “two guys from Queens” as the New York Times reported, this banality and its advertisement is a rosy screen door to the charnal house of capitalism, the home of genocide as we see in the Congo, Sudan, Palestine and beyond, the inexorable misery and instability for all working people.

In the dark times we live in, any ray of hope is welcome and in the absence of a revolutionary working-class movement, we are in danger of deception at times from perhaps earnest but doomed reformers, as reform is doomed itself. Mamdani’s election may appear to be a step in the right direction, but the destination of social emancipation will not be reached until the poisonous thorns of electoralism, respectability, and compromise with an increasingly reactionary status quo, are consciously ripped away by an organized and revolutionary working-class movement. We must not give in to feelings of disappointment and betrayal by those who smile and shake hands with the ugly, ravenous monsters of capitalism, but instead sharpen our analysis and formulate our strategies and tactics for the side of the working masses in the ongoing class war.

Categories: Elections, Government, U.S. News