Zohran Mamdani visited the White House Friday where he disarmed President Trump, and received a warmer welcome than he had from powerful corners of the Democratic Party at times this year. The meeting between the two men amounted to a thoroughly American experience in political surrealism.
Mr. Mamdani requested the meeting with the president, who had during the campaign called him a “communist” and threatened to send the National Guard into New York City. Instead of acrimony, Mr. Trump responded effusively to the city’s new mayor elect. It was a riveting illustration of Mr. Mamdani’s sharp political instincts and ability to charm even his political rivals if needed, something he and the president share.
“I’ll stick up for you,” Mr. Trump said, defending the mayor’s decision to travel to Washington by plane instead of rail. The president called Mr. Mamdani a “rational person.”
From the Oval Office, the democratic socialist mayor and reactionary president began talking about all the things upon which they agree: building more housing and lowering crime; a shared love of New York City. “We had a meeting that actually surprised me,” Mr. Trump said. “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him. A big help, because I want New York City to be great.” Mr. Mamdani stood beside the president with a smile.
In the days since he was elected, Mr. Mamdani, 34, has handed the bewildered establishment yet another surprise: a vivid display of political shrewdness and pragmatism.
His early political maneuvering suggests Mr. Mamdani is comfortable taking big risks, forming alliances with political opponents and willing to disappoint ardent supporters if he views the moves as helpful in carrying out his ambitious agenda.
Just consider his choice — celebrated by Mr. Trump Friday — to retain New York’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, a centrist opposed to the state’s landmark bail reforms whose overall approach to policing falls to the right of many voters in Mr. Mamdani’s base. “She’s a good friend of some of the people in my family,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Tisch Friday.
Crime has generally fallen under Ms. Tisch, who is especially well liked by business leaders and others within the city’s establishment, many of whom pushed to keep her on the job. It seems clear that the long tradition among the city’s mayors of affording the Police Department broad independence from City Hall is set to continue.
Back home in New York, Mr. Mamdani is already playing a complex role in New York’s congressional races, quietly encouraging City Comptroller Brad Lander to challenge Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat, in New York’s 10th Congressional District, while openly discouraging Councilman Chi Ossé — a fellow member of the Democratic Socialists of America — from challenging Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, for his Brooklyn seat across town. Whatever other changes Mr. Mamdani may bring to New York, provoking the House Democratic leadership, at least for now, doesn’t appear to be on his list.
The day after the election, Mr. Mamdani told the city that his transition team would be filled largely with veterans of previous administrations. Four of the five appointees had worked for other mayors. What’s notable about the appointments is who they aren’t: outsiders, 20-somethings or people with Democratic Socialists of America bona fides. Instead, they’re people with significant experience navigating New York politics or carefully tending the city’s bureaucracy. The exception was Lina Khan, the former head of the Federal Trade Commission under President Joe Biden. At the F.T.C., Ms. Khan showed a zeal for bringing antitrust suits against powerful companies like Amazon and Meta; her name provokes ire among many business leaders.
On Nov. 10, Mr. Mamdani named Dean Fuleihan as first deputy mayor. Not necessarily a fresh face around City Hall, Mr. Fuleihan first served in government during the Carter administration. A dedicated public servant with a deep knowledge of government, he was first deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio, ran the city’s budget office and helped roll out universal prekindergarten. It’s a serious pick.
A few veterans could come in handy in an administration where many senior aides and staffers are barely in their thirties and their memory of city government runs short. “What will be important is to ensure there is the right balance of transformative leadership and transactional leadership,” Jennifer Jones Austin, who served as a leader of Mr. de Blasio’s transition team in 2013, told me.
The age of Mr. Mamdani’s team continues to shock the system of even many millennial Democratic strategists, who long ago became accustomed to working with candidates and senior aides who were frequently older than 50. “I need a Gen Z dictionary to get through the day,” Monica Klein, his transition spokeswoman, told me. (She is 36.)
Ms. Klein said that more than 62,000 people have so far applied to work for the Mamdani administration since the Nov. 4 election, and that the average age of the applicants is 28. That may not only be a sign of interest in Mr. Mamdani, but also a measure of the pain faced by some of his own voters. The unemployment rate for Americans ages 20 to 24 is more than 9 percent.
Among the many challenges ahead for Mr. Mamdani is keeping many people, from left to center, happy. Despite his outreach to Mr. Trump and his other moves, there is no suggestion that Mr. Mamdani is backing off from his decidedly leftist agenda. And not all of his appointments are traditional. His chief of staff and closest aide, Elle Bisgaard-Church, is deeply ideologically aligned with Mr. Mamdani (and like him is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America). She is also 34.
The morning after Mr. Mamdani was elected mayor, New York City, from the panicked corners of the Upper East Side to the progressive enclaves of Brooklyn, wasn’t quite sure what to expect. In the days since, Mr. Mamdani has continued to build relationships outside his base and has signaled he fully intends to enjoy the benefit of insiders.
Bucking orthodoxy could work well for the new mayor, as long as it’s in service of the big and heady promises he made to New York City and working people.
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