Just days after a friendly interaction in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Sunday he still believes Trump is a fascist and a threat to democracy.
Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he thought Trump was a fascist, Mamdani replied, “And that’s something that I’ve said in the past. I say it today.”
But he said he appreciated the conversation with Trump because “we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment.”
Mamdani continued that he still believes Trump is a threat to democracy and a despot.
President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speak to members of the media as they meet in the Oval Office at the White House, Nov. 21, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
“Everything that I’ve said in the past, I continue to believe. And that’s the thing that I think is important in our politics, is that we don’t shy away from where we have disagreements, but we understand what it is that brings us to that table, because I’m not coming into the Oval Office to make a point or make a stand. I’m coming in there to deliver for New Yorkers,” he said.
Mamdani added that he wanted the meeting to be friendly in order to show the country that despite their disagreements, they could still have a productive relationship.
“I thought again and again about what it would mean for New Yorkers if we could establish a productive relationship that would focus on the issues that those New Yorkers stay up late at night thinking about,” he said. “Because so often in our politics we try and tell people what they should be worried about, what they should be concerned about.”
Trump and Mamdani appeared cordial and shook hands in a news conference after their roughly 25-minute closed-door talk on Friday. Both said they agreed on a lot.
Their friendly news conference differed from the months of trading insults and harsh rhetoric with Trump threatening to withhold federal funding for New York if Mamdani was elected and to send federal agents there to fight crime and Mamdani criticizing ICE’s expanded raids and the administration’s surge in deportations.
When a reporter asked Mamdani Friday if he still considered Trump a fascist, the president stepped in with a joke before taking another question.
“That’s OK, you can just say ‘Yes,'” Trump said as he patted Mamdani on the back with a laugh. “It’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it.”
On Sunday, Mamdani said the meeting was “a productive one” in which he and Trump focused on affordability and public safety. Mamdani wouldn’t outright say that Trump committed to not sending troops into New York City, but on Saturday, Trump said “other places need it more” when asked if he would.
Mamdani said he made it clear to the president that “what we wanted to do was to deliver public safety and affordability, and the NYPD would be the ones to do so.”