So Trump didn’t rendition Mamdani. They appear to be huge friends now. What gives?
Here’s my take since I’ve got this question again and again in the last hour.
I didn’t predict this. But I also don’t think we should be surprised. Trump does stuff like this fairly often. He’s someone’s number one enemy and then they meet and they’re big buds. So this shouldn’t surprise us. But even noting that frequency, it was a bit warm, even for Trump. And by my read, this wasn’t the Trump who’s often conflict-averse in person, lacking the guts to be his aggressive, nasty self to someone’s face. He didn’t seem cowed. He seemed genuinely happy, which if you think about it is something we actually rarely see from Trump. I mean, he shot a torpedo right through the hull of Elise Stefanik’s nascent gubernatorial campaign, to the extent it ever existed, which was marginal. He took away one of Republicans’ biggest attack lines against Mamdani (officially not scary). He made Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer look … well, kinda ridiculous. So again, what gives?
I think there are a few factors.
One is that Mamdani is personally very charming. He’s got oceans of charisma. Even his foes know this. That’s a big thing for Trump. Always has been. It’s of a piece with his being a pushover for any good looking guy he could imagine being a movie leading man. As Trump also noted explicitly in one of the video clips, Mamdani brought a press horde with him. That’s a really, really big thing for Trump. That impresses him. Trump wants to be near that — especially if the recipient of that love provides a pathway to see that love as not being at Trump’s expense, as not the inverse of rejection of Trump.
Obviously, I have no idea what they discussed. But I figure Mamdani came in and said two things right off the bat. I want to build a lot of new housing stock. New construction. You love that. And my victory was built on a lot of voters from the outer boroughs who also voted for you. You’re hearing all this stuff about me. But we actually agree on some key things. We share supporters. I suspect he also said, or would have been wise to say, we don’t have to fight. So let’s not fight?
Let’s be frank. For two or three weeks Trump’s been getting knocked around like a punch-drunk, overaged boxer in a match he never should have agreed to fight. I’m sure Mamdani’s charm offensive felt pretty nice after that.
Now, I fully expect Trump will be back to saying nasty things about Mamdani on social media soon enough, or at least taunting things. There are the objective facts of the national crisis which will bring them into conflict, regardless. But I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Mamdani has gotten more from this than one good press avail. The best way for Mamdani to pull New Yorkers to his side is to get into a pitched battle with Donald Trump, along the lines of what we’ve seen in LA, Chicago, now Charlotte. But it’s really not necessarily the best way for him to succeed as mayor, to notch a bunch of policy wins that allow him to say he’s delivering on his promises about affordability. There’s a difference. I’m not saying he can’t do both. That’s possible. But if he can come to some understanding with Trump to refrain from targeting New York City, that’s a win for his ambitions as mayor even if it lacks the partisan fireworks some are expecting. In the most basic sense, if a mayor’s job isn’t to do everything he can to stop a renegade president from targeting his city what is it?
Like I said, I fully expect them to be fighting soon enough. But I don’t think we have to look too far into the inner workings of either guy to make sense of how and why this went as it did.
