President Donald Trump has decided to pause sending the National Guard to New York City after meeting with the city’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
The Republican leader has been thinking about whether or not to deploy troops to the Big Apple, similar to what he’s done in other Democrat-run cities in a bid to crack down on crime, but during an interview Saturday Trump appeared to change his tune.
When asked if he still wanted to go forward with his plan by MS NOW reporter Akalya Gardner, Trump said he would do so only if needed, but right now, his home city isn’t at the top of his list.
‘If they need it. Right now, other places need it more, but if they need it,’ he replied before gushing about his meeting with Mamdani.
‘We had a very good meeting yesterday. We talked about that, but if they need it, I would do it.’
This is a drastic difference from just months back when Trump insisted on sending troops into New York City following his promise to clean up Chicago, Illinois with the same strategy.
‘When ready, we will start in Chicago … Chicago is a mess,’ he said to reporters in the Oval Office in August, before adding that his administration will go on to ‘help with New York.’
He’s previously talked about taking over other major liberal-run cities, including Baltimore, Oakland, Los Angeles and more.
President Donald Trump has decided to halt sending the National Guard to his home city of New York City after meeting New York City’s Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani
The political opponents met on Friday at the White House, where Trump told the self-described Democratic socialist he can call him a ‘fascist’
‘I’m going to look at New York in a little while,’ he said while sending the National Guard to Washington D.C. and after troops went to California in June.
When he first threatened to take over New York City with troops, officials, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Governor Kathy Hochul, immediately pushed back.
Tisch met with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and told her there was no need for their deployment while Hochul said she called Trump directly in a big to get him to call off sending federal troops into her city.
‘I said Mr. President, I can give you all the data you need to show that crime is down, it’s working, our policies are working, NYPD is doing their job, we did our job in the state legislature to tighten up laws that had gone way too long being loose, and not protecting the people of the city and the state,’ Hochul recalled.
‘He’s just trying to throw gasoline on a fire, we don’t need that, we got our own fires under control here, we do not need the federal government telling us what to do,’ she added.
The commander-in-chief’s comments come just a day after the pair put on a display of admiration when the self-described Democratic socialist visited the White House on Friday.
During the meeting, the two political rivals seemingly put their differences aside in an extraordinary concession.
A telling moment during their interaction was when a reporter asked Mamdani about his previous comments calling the president a ‘fascist.’
In response, Trump said: ‘You can call me it,’ indicating perhaps the extent to which the young politician impressed him during their discussion.
Mamdani, 34, was elected in a landslide result earlier this month. He is widely seen as a next generation leader of the Democratic party. (Pictured: The mayor-elect with his mother Mira Nair after winning on November 4)
Trump, who is a titan of New York real estate, said he hoped that Mamdani would be ‘a really great mayor.’
‘The better he does, the happier I am,’ he added.
The president went as far as saying conservatives are going to be surprised by democratic socialist Mamdani, who rose to power on a wave of support from younger voters frustrated by sky-high property prices.
‘I think he’s gonna surprise some conservative people, actually,’ Trump said after their meeting. ‘And some very liberal people he won’t surprise because they already like him.’
Mamdani, 34, was elected in a landslide result earlier this month. He is widely seen as a next generation leader of the Democratic party.
‘I can tell you I am someone who is a democratic socialist,’ Mamdani said. ‘I’ve been very open about that, and I know there might be differences about ideology, but the place of agreement is the work that needs to be done to make New York City affordable.’
Trump focused primarily on the common ground the two share.
‘I congratulate him, and we talked about some things … like housing and getting housing built and food and prices and the price of oil,’ Trump added. ‘We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.
‘Some of his ideas are the same ones I have,’ the president said of Mamdani’s focus on affordability.
The warm reception was surprising given their past attacks against each other.
Trump repeatedly urged voters not to back the young progressive and endorsed former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on the eve of election day.
Despite calling Mamdani a ‘communist’ and a ‘lunatic,’ the president said Friday morning that he believed the meeting would be cordial.
The president even threatened to withhold some federal funds from the city if Zohran was elected, saying, ‘If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home.’
But all of that changed after they met.
The president said he would ‘absolutely’ live in a Mamdani-run New York City and that he has ‘very little doubt’ the unlikely pair agree on crime policy.
‘He just retained a great police commissioner,’ Trump said of Mamdani selecting Jessica Tisch, a friend of the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump.
Mamdani said he spoke to the president about affordability and ICE operations in New York as well as bringing down costs as inflation eats away at middle class earnings.
Though Trump has relentlessly attacked the young democratic socialist, the two do share commonalities.
Both have connections to New York City’s Queens neighborhood and have devoted followers.
Trump specifically said Mamdani ‘retained a great police commissioner,’ speaking of the incoming mayor selecting Jessica Tisch (pictured together on November 19), a friend of the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump
In private, the president has even reportedly mentioned Mamdani’s political prowess, noting how the progressive is charismatic.
‘I know that for tens of thousands of New Yorkers, this meeting is between two very different candidates who they voted for, for the same reason,’ Mamdani said of the meeting.
‘They wanted a leader who would take on the cost-of-living crisis that makes it impossible for working people to afford living in the city.’
The mayor-elect has also reportedly sought council ahead of the meeting from top Democrats who have interacted with Trump.
Mamdani is set to officially take office as the mayor of New York City on January 1, replacing Eric Adams.
