Leftist New York mayor-elect faces Trump in White House showdown

Washington: Months of sniping melted away Friday as New York s incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump were all smiles at a W...

Washington: Months of sniping melted away Friday as New York's incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump were all smiles at a White House meeting -- promising to set aside their feud and cooperate on the city's future.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old political insurgent who rocketed from obscurity to win City Hall earlier this month, had taken on Trump in a bruising war of words, likening the Republican to "bad landlords... taking advantage of their tenants."

Washington watchers were bracing for sparks to fly when the self-described Democratic socialist met the Republican leader who has in turn branded the mayor-elect a "communist" and suggested the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported.

But the Oval Office summit was instead the embodiment of civility as a beaming Trump, 79, praised Mamdani's historic election win, said he could do a "great job," and called him a "man who really wants to see New York be great again."

"We're going to be helping him to make everybody's dream come true: having a strong and very safe New York," Trump said.