President Donald Trump gestures to New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as they speak to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. Acid insults were set aside as New York’s mayor-elect and the president promoted their shared goals. (Eric Lee/The New York Times)

There was one moment in particular when Zohran Mamdani seemed like he might have bit off a little more than he could chew by making his lonely pilgrimage down to the lion’s den that is President Donald Trump’s blinged-out Oval Office.

The 34-year-old mayor-elect of New York was pressed by a reporter if he thought his host, who was sitting about 4 inches away, was really “a fascist.”

How terribly awkward.

But before Mamdani could even get out one of his slick and diplomatic answers, t

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