Simply days after a friendly interaction in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani stated Sunday he nonetheless believes Trump is a fascist and a risk to democracy.
Requested on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he thought Trump was a fascist, Mamdani replied, “And that is one thing that I’ve stated up to now. I say it at the moment.”
However he stated he appreciated the dialog with Trump as a result of “we weren’t shy in regards to the locations of disagreement, in regards to the politics that has introduced us to this second.”
Mamdani continued that he nonetheless believes Trump is a risk to democracy and a despot.
President Donald Trump and New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani communicate to members of the media as they meet within the Oval Workplace on the White Home, Nov. 21, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
“All the things that I’ve stated up to now, I proceed to consider. And that is the factor that I feel is necessary in our politics, is that we do not shrink back from the place we’ve got disagreements, however we perceive what it’s that brings us to that desk, as a result of I am not coming into the Oval Workplace to make some extent or make a stand. I am coming in there to ship for New Yorkers,” he stated.
Mamdani added that he needed the assembly to be pleasant so as to present the nation that regardless of their disagreements, they might nonetheless have a productive relationship.
“I assumed repeatedly about what it will imply for New Yorkers if we may set up a productive relationship that may deal with the problems that these New Yorkers keep up late at night time eager about,” he stated. “As a result of so usually in our politics we try to inform folks what they need to be fearful about, what they need to be involved about.”
Trump and Mamdani appeared cordial and shook palms in a information convention after their roughly 25-minute closed-door discuss on Friday. Each stated they agreed on so much.
Their pleasant information convention differed from the months of buying and selling insults and harsh rhetoric with Trump threatening to withhold federal funding for New York if Mamdani was elected and to ship federal brokers there to combat crime and Mamdani criticizing ICE’s expanded raids and the administration’s surge in deportations.
When a reporter requested Mamdani Friday if he nonetheless thought-about Trump a fascist, the president stepped in with a joke earlier than taking one other query.
“That is OK, you possibly can simply say ‘Sure,'” Trump stated as he patted Mamdani on the again with fun. “It is simpler. It is simpler than explaining it.”
On Sunday, Mamdani stated the assembly was “a productive one” during which he and Trump targeted on affordability and public security. Mamdani would not outright say that Trump dedicated to not sending troops into New York Metropolis, however on Saturday, Trump stated “different locations want it extra” when requested if he would.
Mamdani stated he made it clear to the president that “what we needed to do was to ship public security and affordability, and the NYPD could be those to take action.”
