President Donald Trump could not help but grin as New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani shut down a question from a MAGA reporter in the Oval Office.
Jack Poseobic, a far-right influencer best known for the Pizzagate conspiracy, asked the president about a supposed plan of Mamdani’s to shift the tax burden to “white-based communities.”
While the question was directed at Trump, the 34-year-old Mamdani asked Trump, 79, if it was OK for him to take the question—all while Poseobic finished his rambling question that was more akin to a statement.
“I also noticed that in your acceptance speech, you didn’t mention anything about America or Christians or white people in general,” Poseobic continued. “And so I didn’t know if that was one of the policies that you guys have spoken about.”
Mamdani answered, “We focused on affordability. We focused on the cost-of-living crisis. What I will say is that I am very much interested in property tax reform, because what we see right now in New York City is a system that is so inequitable that it can’t even stand up in court.”
Poseobic refused to move on without Mamdani addressing the supposed race issue.
“You’re continuing this idea of race-based property tax—” Poseobic said before Mamdani cut him off.
Mamdani said, “No, to be very clear, the use of the term was a description of neighborhoods, not a description of intent.”
Poseobic still pressed, “So you intend to tax the whiter neighborhoods more?”
It was at this point that Trump began to grin and look in the direction of Mamdani.
The mayor-elect again pushed back again, answering, “No, we intend to create a fair property tax system, because we want a New York City that is not only fair and equitable, but also one that every year can afford.”
Trump’s grin was not a one-off. He was smiling and laughing throughout his chummy joint appearance with Mamdani in the Oval Office.
The president was so opposed to Mamdani previously that he endorsed his opponent, the lifelong Democrat Andrew Cuomo, in a last-ditch effort to keep him out of office.
However, on Friday, Trump appeared over-the-top friendly with the millennial politician and even said it was OK for him to call him a “fascist” and “despot.” Trump also refused to refer to Mamdani as a communist, as his press secretary has done.
“He’s got views out there, but who knows? I mean, we’re going to see what works or he’s going to change also,” Trump said. “We all change. I’ve changed a lot.”
Trump’s love-fest with Mamdani appeared to damage the work of some of his closest allies. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, running for governor of New York, has called Mamdani a “jihadist” on the campaign trail. A reporter asked Trump if he actually thought Mamdani was one.
“No, I don’t,” Trump shrugged. “She’s out there campaigning. You say things sometimes on a campaign.”
Contrary to how the right-wing press has described him, Trump also said that he thinks Mamdani can make New York great again.
“I think he wants to make it greater than ever before, and if he can, we’ll be out there cheering,” Trump said. “I’ll be cheering for him.”
Posobiec rushed onto Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to try to claim the semblance of a victory to his MAGA audience, claiming that Mamdani’s campaign manager was “staring daggers at me the entire time,” and claimed “the mask came off because he knew I was coming.”
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