The spectacle of last week was the meeting between President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, two politicians been going after each other for months. Trump, who had called Mamdani a "communist lunatic" during the mayoral election, now declared Mamdani "a very rational person." When journalists asked Mamdani about his past attacks on Trump's "fascist agenda," the president beamed, patted Mamdani, and added, "That's OK. You can just say it."
In some ways, the encounter resembled Trump's meeting with the new Syrian president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in May 2025. "Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter," Trump said of al-Sharaa, former head of Al Qaeda in Syria. It was also a throwback to Trump's first-term outreach to North Korea. After threatening the country with "fire and fury," he had a series of meetings with its leader, Kim Jong Un, whom Trump came to praise as a "very honorable" negotiating partner.
