Finding common ground ...

Donald Trump shakes hands with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as they meet in the Oval Office on November 21, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Finding common ground ... As you, my loyal readers know, I am not in love with The Donald but shock and awe comes to mind in terms of Mandani meeting Trump with the end result, a resounding success. Why? Coming to agreement in areas of shared interests. Yours truly interacts with many people possessing different political viewpoints from ardent MAGAs to radical lefties and I must say, I get along. There are shared interests able to be leveraged and discussed in the pursuit of solving problems. Question ... When is the last time we had a president talk about the country and not about the party? When is the last time a president talked about problems shared by all like healthcare being out of control in terms of cost and complexity or the question of affordability in terms of goods and services using rancor and vitriol to "answer" the question versus analyzing why this is so and going ahead with the solving of said problem in constructive fashion. I thought so. Mamdani's sharp, has charisma and has vision.
Not bad for a young guy on the rise IMHO. :)

In a triumphant election-night speech earlier this month, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani addressed President Donald Trump directly, telling the president to “turn the volume up.” Trump has repeatedly called Mamdani a “Communist” and questioned his citizenship status.

But when the two met in the Oval Office on Friday, it was all strikingly cordial — almost affectionate. “Hopefully, you’ll have a really great mayor,” Trump told reporters. “The better he does, the happier I am.”

So Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani had this strikingly friendly appearance in the Oval. What happened? Is this a big deal?

I certainly think it’s a big deal. It reflects the intention that Mamdani approached his entire campaign with, and particularly the general election — his consistent ability to turn skeptics into supporters. That was consistently happening in such a way that it was built into his strategy, and I think we saw that on the biggest stage yesterday.

In some ways, it reflects a lot of the meetings that he’s had already, but in some ways, it’s so much more extraordinary considering what Trump has said, and considering the way Trump was really coming to him. Trump’s the one throwing up the thumbs-up in the photos, not Mamdani. And I think that is reflective of an approach where Mamdani and his team come to these [meetings] and try to focus on areas of agreement and shared values. They identified affordability as one that they think Donald Trump shared, and so they came with that intention in mind. That’s the same strategy they’ve used for meetings of all sorts.

This could be the start of something good for a change. One can only hope.