New York's incoming leftist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on Sunday that he still believes US President Donald Trump is a fascist, even after the two had a warm meeting at the White House.
“That's something I've said in the past, I say it today,” the mayor-elect said in NBC news.
The self-described democratic socialist met with the Republican leader on Friday, putting aside months of mutual recriminations and pledging to cooperate on the city's future.
Trump, who had previously suggested that the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported, even came to his aid when the two addressed reporters at the White House on Friday.
When a reporter asked Mamdani if he still saw Trump as a fascist, the president interjected.
“It's okay. You can say it. It's easier,” Trump told Mamdani. “It's easier than explaining it. I don't care.”
in your NBC Interview on Sunday morning, Mamdani explained:
“What I appreciated about the conversation I had with the president was that we had no qualms about the places of disagreement, about the policy that has brought us to this moment,” he said.
And he added: “In the meeting I had with the president I found it productive and a meeting that returned again and again to the central issues of the campaign we carried out: the cost of housing, the cost of child care, the cost of food, the cost of public services.”
After threatening to cut federal funding to America's largest city and send in the National Guard, Trump at the White House praised Mamdani's historic election victory and said he could do a “great job.”
“We're going to help you make everyone's dream come true: to have a strong, very safe New York,” Trump said.
