The president’s Oval Office meeting with New York’s incoming leader is not open to the press.
Trump, 79, frequently invites reporters into the Oval Office for a front-seat view as he sits down with U.S. and world leaders, but, according to his schedule, the media was barred from his first meeting with Mamdani, the Democratic socialist 45 years his junior.
Their first face-to-face comes after Trump lobbed a series of nasty attacks on the political upstart who mounted an underdog campaign and went on to win the race to lead the largest city in the U.S.
Trump has blasted Mamdani as a “communist lunatic” and “not very smart.” He falsely accused him of being in the country illegally, threatened to arrest him, and warned that he would cut off money to New York if he won.
100%, the American public, for as much as everyone complains about the state of politics, are not much better as a driving force for policy and good outcomes.
Because everyone can’t keep their shit together and the most ill-informed voices now speak loudest, we’re going to see more and more actual politics moving behind closed doors, for better or worse.
I think that’s fine, though. You don’t always need to see how the sausage is made. It’s only the fact they Trump is such an untrustworthy person that this is an issue. I trust Mamdani, though.