MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace was taken aback after watching President Donald Trump’s gushing treatment of New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in front of the press on Friday night during Mamdani’s visit to the White House.
“Even with Putin, Trump didn’t go on for as long where he lavished that much praise, affection and admiration on anyone,” Wallace told her guest, “Fast Politics” podcast host Molly Jong-Fast, on Friday.
Trump congratulated Mamdani, a harsh and outspoken critic of the president, for his mayoral win during their highly anticipated meeting, praising him and offering words of encouragement. It was quite the shift from the tone Trump took during the mayoral race, when he labeled Mamdani a “communist lunatic.”
“The better he does, the happier I am, I will say,” Trump said Friday. “There’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything. And we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York. And congratulations, Mr. Mayor.”
Jong-Fast shared a theory with Wallace: Trump saw the popularity of Mamdani and his economics-focused messaging, and Trump “wants to get on that affordability train.”
