In what has been an entirely bizarre and surreal decade of Trumpworld U.S.A, the most bizarre moment yet might have been the meeting last month between President Trump and incoming New York mayor Zoran Mamdani. Hyped to be a showdown akin to what we’ll see on the White House Lawn come next June (with Lincoln Memorial weigh-in!), the meeting was far from that, closer to what might be called a lovefest.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be so strange that personal attraction and chemistry overshadow political ideology. Just look at James Carville and Mary Matalin. Mamdani and Trump might not be far off from that comparison.
More surreal than the Trump and Mamdani bromance itself, though, is that there might be some overlap in the Trump and Mamdani coalitions, with exit polling showing that overlap to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 9%. Policy and the tug-of-war between the priorities of Mamdani’s New York and Trump’s federal government will likely trip up the bromance once the superficial chemistry has dissipated.
