Democratic Socialist Mayor elect Zohran Mamdani managed to take one of the most surprising Oval Office moments in recent memory and torch it within forty-eight hours. On Friday he stood beside President Trump in the White House, smiling for cameras, talking cooperation, and even getting covered by Trump when reporters pressed him on his habit of calling the president a fascist. Trump waved it off and basically said, go ahead and say yes. Mamdani nodded along and everyone moved on. For a minute it almost looked like New York’s new mayor understood that governing actually requires dealing with reality.
Then Sunday rolled around and Mamdani marched onto Meet The Press to announce that, yes, he still thinks nationalism is fascism, Trump is a threat to democracy, and he is sticking with the sanctuary city agenda that helped put New York in the mess it is in. He told Kristen Welker that everything he said before, he still believes today, which is a polite way of saying the chummy press conference meant nothing except a photo op.
Welker asked him flat out whether he thinks President Trump is a fascist. Mamdani said yes. She asked whether he still thinks Trump is a despot and a threat to democracy. Again, he said yes. Then he gave a long speech about disagreements and shared goals and affordability crises, which is how every progressive tries to dodge the obvious contradiction of calling someone dangerous while also asking the same person for federal help.
The immigration portion of the interview made the whole thing even clearer. Mamdani bragged about New York’s sanctuary city policies and said he would not allow ICE to deport illegal immigrants unless they are convicted of serious crimes. In other words, the city will keep protecting people who entered the country illegally while lecturing Washington about democracy. He said the concern of New Yorkers is anything beyond those 170 serious crimes, which is an impressive way to pretend that crime categories not on that list somehow do not impact public safety.
His incoming chief of staff, Elle Bisgaard Church, doubled down by calling ICE practices inhumane and insisting every immigrant will be safe in New York. Mamdani happily promoted that clip online. He even declared that protecting immigrant communities makes the city safer for everyone, which ignores the basic reality that the sanctuary model has produced chaos for years.
So the bottom line is simple. Mamdani will smile beside President Trump to get federal cooperation, then run to the nearest camera to reassure the activist class that he has not changed one bit. New York voters wanted a socialist mayor. They are about to find out what that actually looks like.
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