President Trump believes he has the upper hand in his budding relationship with Zohran Mamdani, according to a source who helped arrange last week’s bizarre lovefest at the Oval Office – and if you want to know why, just follow the money.
Trump on Friday startled voters and pundits alike as he lauded New York City’s mayor-elect as a “rational person,” who “has a chance to really do something great for New York.” Previously, Trump branded Mamdani a “100 percent communist lunatic,” ripping his stance on taxes, the police and Israel and his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the Intifada.”
Likewise, Mamdani, who has referred to Trump as a “fascist” and a “despot,” gushed about the duo’s “shared purpose.”
To make sense of the surreal spectacle, it’s helpful to know that behind the scenes, the meeting was brokered by a New York business titan close to Trump who believes the president should play the long game with the lefty Mamdani for the good of the city and for his own agenda – particularly as it relates to deportations, The Post has learned.
It’s also helpful to know that this was after said businessman was approached by a top official in Mamdani’s inner circle.
The surprise message from Mamdani’s transition team: The mayor-elect – who in his election-night speech had dared Trump to “turn the volume up” – would now like to smooth things over with Trump.
The Mamdani official indicated the newly elected mayor knows he needs help from the White House to pay for even a few of his vast spending promises and to balance the city budget as he must by law, say people with direct knowledge of the matter.
That, according to sources, was after Mamdani – a 34-year-old backbench assemblyman and former rapper – was briefed on the $7.5 billion in federal aid the city receives each year. That cash, sources noted, is crucial for his socialist agenda – and could be throttled by the president.
“He faces a $17 billion budget deficit in the next fiscal year to pay for all the free stuff he’s proposing,” said the city business leader who helped organize the event and advised Trump to take the meeting. “Even if (Gov. Kathy) Hochul agrees to raise taxes, he still faces a multibillion-dollar shortfall. He needs Trump and Trump knows it.”
“Trump is playing nice for now,” this person added. “But if Mamdani doesn’t allow deportations, or defunds the police or goes full on communist, Trump is ready to lower the hammer.”
A White House press rep had no immediate comment. A spokesman for Mamdani also had no comment.
Trump holds the upper hand, among other things, because the mayor faces a requirement under state law to balance the budget. Accordingly, the business leader advised the president that he has nothing to lose by offering an olive branch – even if it’s to an avowed socialist with far left cultural views.
In the weeks and months ahead, however, don’t count on uninterrupted warm and fuzzies. Trump continues to view Mamdani with extreme skepticism. The mayor will only get the money if he tempers his socialist economic and cultural agenda in the city where the president’s real estate empire still has a major footprint.
Over the weekend, Mamdani on a Sunday talk show refused to disavow his past name calling of Trump as a “fascist” and a “despot.”
Only a few days earlier ahead of the meeting, Mamdani is said to have agreed not to antagonize Trump at the powwow and to keep the conversation on how best to fix the city’s affordability issues.
“What I really appreciate about the president is the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, but also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” Mamdani said of Trump in keeping his promise.
In the next fiscal year, New York City faces a budget shortfall of as much as $8 billion. When accounting for Mamdani’s plans for free buses, massive new spending on housing, plus items like subsidizing trans care for children, the deficit widens to as much as $17 billion, according to some estimates.
Mamdani is calling for higher taxes on individuals who make $1 million and a vast increase on the corporate tax rates. Both have to be approved by Gov. Hochul and the state legislature.
Hochul has been warming up to Mamdani’s plans, but he must finish the year without a deficit, and raising taxes could force more of the so-called 1% to keep moving out of the state as they have been for the past decade.
All of that could make Mamdani more beholden to Trump and his policy goals. Some say it’s already happening, pointing to Mamdani’s plans to re-appoint the tough-on-crime NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch. Ditto for Mamdani’s recent support for the re-election of House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) over a DSA-endorsed challenger.
“Trump is not worried about Mamdani,” said another city business leader. “He has a ‘plan B’ if Mamdani misbehaves.”
