President Donald Trump said on Friday (November 21, 2025) that he would “absolutely” feel comfortable living in New York City under Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, pointing to unexpected areas of agreement after their Oval Office meeting and praising the incoming mayor’s views on crime, housing and affordability.
Mr. Trump delivered one of the most surprising lines of his Oval Office news conference on Friday (November 21, 2025), telling reporters that he would “absolutely” feel comfortable living in New York City once Zohran Mamdani takes office. The comment capped a strikingly warm exchange between two politicians who clashed bitterly during the mayoral campaign, yet now say they have common ground on the city’s most urgent challenges.
Asked directly whether he would feel at ease in Mr. Mamdani’s New York, Trump did not hesitate. “Yeah, I would. I really would, especially after the meeting, absolutely,” he said. Moments later, he elaborated: “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought. I think he’s — I want him to do a great job and we’ll help him do a great job.”
Mr. Trump’s comments came after almost an hour of joint remarks and questions with Mr. Mamdani, during which both men emphasized alignment on affordability, rent, housing construction and crime — areas that dominated the mayor-elect’s campaign and have long animated Trump’s political messaging.
Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and one of New York’s most progressive incoming mayors, frequently invoked the “cost of living, cost of living, cost of living” refrain during the campaign. On Friday (November 21, 2025), he repeated that voters from all political backgrounds, including Mr. Trump supporters, cited groceries, rent, utilities and childcare as their greatest concerns.
Mr. Trump seized on that overlap. “The new word is affordability… they’re coming down,” he said, referring to inflation and grocery prices, and insisting that falling fuel prices should translate into lower Con Edison bills. “If we’re sending them fuel at a much lower price… we have to get Con Edison to start lowering their rates.”
On crime and public safety, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Mamdani’s stated commitment to maintaining the NYPD’s 35,000-officer headcount, calling the mayor-elect’s position “a good sign.” Mamdani reiterated that his administration would ensure police “focus on serious crime” rather than respond to “200,000 mental health calls a year.”
Mr. Trump added, “He wants to have a safe New York… Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York.”
Housing, however, emerged as the most surprising policy bridge. Mr. Trump said Mr. Mamdani “wants to see houses go up… a lot of apartments built,” and emphasised that “people would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing.” Mamdani later tied that priority to reforms in New York’s complex property-tax system, which he described as “so inequitable that it can’t even stand up in court.”
For Mr. Trump, Friday’s (November 21, 2025) tone also reflected a recalibration. When asked about his earlier descriptions of Mr. Mamdani as a communist, he replied, “He’s got views that are a little out there, but… some of my views have changed… I feel very confident that he can do a very good job.”
Pressed on whether he still believed Mr. Trump had a fascist agenda, Mr. Mamdani did not retract past statements but said he and the President were “very clear about our positions” and that the meeting focused on “shared purpose… in serving New Yorkers.” Mr. Trump brushed it off: “I’ve been called much worse than a despot.”
As the exchange wrapped up, Mr. Trump returned to his earlier point, praising Mamdani’s rise from an underdog candidate who “came out of nowhere” to winning a primary “nobody expected he was going to win.” He said he hopes Mr. Mamdani will “bring [New York] back … greater than ever before,” adding, “If he can, we’ll be out there cheering.”
But it was that earlier remark — a former New York billionaire President saying he would “feel very, very comfortable” living under the direction of a mayor he once derided — that underscored how dramatically the political script flipped on Friday.
This article is published in an arrangement with 5WH.
Published – November 22, 2025 09:39 am IST
