New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s bizarre Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump continues to spiral into political surrealism — and the newest detail may be the strangest yet. Multiple outlets now report that Mamdani directly asked Trump whether he considered himself a fascist. Trump’s response: “If you want to call me that, you can.” Mamdani replied: “Okay.”
Asked to clarify if he thinks Trump is a fascist, before Mamdani can answer, Trump intervenes and laughs it off, saying, “That’s ok. You can just say yes. That’s easier. It’s easier than explaining.” pic.twitter.com/RfKJd6vAs1
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 21, 2025
The deadpan exchange has ricocheted across social media as a perfect encapsulation of the odd, stiff-smiling dynamic between two politicians who recently spent months raging against each other online.
The moment caps off a bitter, deeply personal mayoral race in which Trump went all-in for Mamdani’s opponent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Trump not only endorsed Cuomo but amplified MAGA-world attacks on Mamdani, who endured relentless online harassment for being Muslim, an immigrant and outspoken on Gaza. Right-wing influencers cast him as “anti-American,” and pro-Israel groups labeled him antisemitic, making Mamdani a daily target for weeks.
That history is what made this Oval Office meeting — cordial, almost warm — so jarring. Mamdani told reporters his team initiated the meeting because collaboration was possible “so long as it was to the benefit of the eight and a half million people that call this city their home.” He said he and Trump discussed affordability issues: rent, groceries, utilities and displacement pressures on working-class New Yorkers.
Despite having previously called out Trump on his authoritarian policies, Mamdani said he appreciated that the meeting focused less on ideological clashes and more on “the shared purpose … of serving New Yorkers.” Trump, for his part, shrugged off labels like “fascist,” saying, “I’ve been called much worse.”
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The encounter has prompted a wave of analysis: Is this an unlikely policy alignment, a moment of strategic politics, or simply Trump’s recurring fixation on well-liked young male politicians he once attacked? For Mamdani, the “fascist” question may have been a deliberate stress test. For Trump, permitting the label fits his current malleable strongman performance.
Either way, the meeting has already become a defining image of the race: two adversaries emerging from a brutal campaign, suddenly sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the Oval Office — and agreeing, oddly enough, on what to call the president.
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