That was one weird hell of a meeting, that it was. I especially love how some people are like “I am not at all surprised”. Sure buddy in retrospect everything is always very clear.
Sure it is politics but these two people were at each other’s throats for the last couple months. And Trump has insulted Sadik Khan, mayor of London, every chance he gets, for almost a decade, because Sadik Khan called him ignorant once, about ten years ago. He doesn’t even stand to gain much from this, it is just petty feud. Trump is a vindictive man child. And yet somehow he pretended like he was best friends with a guy who called him a fascist about a month ago. And the way he showed mental agility to deflect questions from reporters like “Do you still think he is a fascist” to save both Mamdani and himself from a difficult spot is so unlike Trump. I would never in a decade think he can display such mental feats and maturity. And yet here we are.
Either Trump thinks he is losing too much support and shifting to center, or he thinks he stands to lose much more financially by losing control of NYC to an enemy rather than someone neutral(ish). It might be both, acting vindictively on NYC might be both a big support and financial loss for him. Or alternatively Trump isn’t this strategic and Mamdani just has found Trump’s levers and is manipulating him by saying the right things.
It makes more sense from Mamdani’s point of view that this was a win. He did not get the vindictive wrath of Trump on NYC (which could have terrible effects on his mayoral term tbh), he did not have to make a statement about backing from any of his policies or ideologies he stated during his campaigning. He also did not really praise Trump (unlike Trump somewhat praising him) but just said they will work together to make NYC better. How this will play out in terms of ICE and increasing racism is to be seen. He will definitely lose some support because of this but he has four years to make up for this.
I think what Trump loves the most is to hold power over people. In a weird turn of events, protecting Mamdani really put his circle of sycophants in their place.
Someone called this the love-in that happens in an abusive marriage after the beatings. “Oh, baby, I do this because I love you so much. You and I are just meant to be together.”
We just need to explain to them that their leader recognizes a strong Man-Date when he sees it.
Literally yesterday at my local diner some dipshit MAGA was complaining that Mamdani was going to give away free food. Just hated the idea of food for the poor.
Dude doesn’t like what’s in the Bible he swears he read.
Matthew 25:41-46 seems explicitly targeted at modern republicans:
‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
Maybe they cut some kind of a deal?
Trump sucked him off. He’s the new bubba
Really though, I think Trump is trying to do “affordability by proxy” to bring his poll numbers back.
Unfortunately for republicans if Trump came out as a gay jewish trans man who was setting MAGA supporters on fire they might still support him out of sheer spite to democrats because of like decades of media inertia.
Okay, Trump suddenly acting amenable is somehow the most unsettling behavior that I can expect from him. Has a second (Third or fourth) stroke hit the white-house? Has the mounting pressure of the Epstein files finally broken him? Did three funny little ghosts visit him last night?
Stay tuned for the next episode of: “America’s Future Hinges On The Whims of A Geriatric, Rapist Sociopath”
It is just not amenability, he fucking showed actual mental agility and maturity when deflecting questions such as “Do you still think he is a fascist” directed at Mamdani. What the actual fuck? Is this guy a robit whose programming changes depending on the situation?
One thing you have to always remember about Donald Trump is: he’s incredibly insecure. His fragile little ego is desperate for approval. It’s why he constantly shitposts on a social media site he owns - so he can get that constant dopamine rush of upvotes and fawning comments and “megadittoes, Mr. President”. And it’s why he’s desperate for the approval of people he considers strong leaders - Putin and Xi and Milei and so on. And when somebody he respects flatters him, he becomes putty in their hands.
Mamdani won decisively in New York. Mamdani proved himself a strong leader. And then, after taking everything Trump could throw at him and coming out on top, Mamdani went to Trump and basically said “I talk a lot of shit about you, you talk a lot of shit about me, but we both know that’s how the game is played and not to take it personally. You do good work and I respect you. We both believe New York is the greatest city in the world so let’s work together to make it great again.”
And Mamdani certainly didn’t have to ask for a meeting with Trump. It probably hurt him with some of his base to talk to Trump at all. So you have this strong man, this leader, this winner, who decisively proved himself the leader of the Democratic Party in New York, with incredible momentum behind him - and he goes to Trump to kiss his ring and ask for his support.
And when a strong man gives Trump the manly validation he craves, he melts like a teenage girl at a David Bowie concert.
Because you also have to remember, Donald Trump has no actual political positions. He doesn’t care about anything except winning - and he loves winners. And whatever Mamdani is, he’s a winner.
Actually the best explanation of Trump being so friendly with him. When I first saw that I had alarms going off in my head, legit the first thought I had was to check if Mamdani has kids (doesn’t look like he has)
I’m very afraid for what this means. I just hope some miracle happens, and Trump becomes a commie.
Lol at the 3 ghosts reference
I’m very relieved that he didn’t try to detain and deport Mamdani (after publicly threatening to do so), but I’m also definitely not convinced anything be said was genuine. Especially coming on the heels of vaguely threatening to execute any Democrats who oppose him.
Idk if it was a genuine attempt to ingratiate himself with the left before the Epstein files are released, or some other kind of misdirection. Either way, I think anyone opposed to fascism who can remember further back than a goldfish, should know not to let their guard down.
Sheer number of times Trump has made conflicting statements about Ukrainian war tells me what he says does not really matter at all. People who know how to operate him gets their requests met.
PROTIP: Nothing Trump says is genuine. One day he could say someone is a great person, the next day he’ll say that person is nasty or whatever, and the day after that he’ll say they’re a great person again. Everything is transactional to him and everything he says is entirely dependent on what benefits him personally in that specific moment.
I said that I was skeptical too and thought it might have all been a performance in order to get to some other goal, and people looked at mt like I was crazy.
I can’t even say Mamdani has dirt on him because what the fuck is there left to blackmail?
Permission to build a moat around Trump tower (to contain the problem)
I can convince small children I’m super strong so i can only assume this was a similar situation.
From CNN:
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was pressed Friday on whether he believes President Donald Trump is a fascist.
Standing beside his host in the Oval Office, Mamdani began to answer – until the president, seated, interrupted.
“That’s OK – you can just say yes. That’s easier. It’s easier than explaining,” Trump told his guest, laughing it off as he playfully tapped Mamdani on the arm.
TFW the fascist agrees he is a fascist
But the two were all smiles throughout, with Trump even siding with the soon-to-be first Muslim mayor of New York over one of his GOP allies, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who’d called Mamdani a “jihadist.”
“She’s out there campaigning and you say things sometimes in a campaign,” Trump said of Stefanik, who’s running for governor of New York. “I met with a man who’s a very rational person. I met with a man who wants to see New York be great again.”
Well that’s not what I expected…
Seriously, he was just threatening to deport him and his family like a week ago. Demented fuckhead.
I’ve seen some word that Trump probably just thinks Mamdani is using “fascist” as a political pejorative - in the same way republicans call their political opponents “communists” or “radical left socialists”.
Or, being an actual fascist, he doesn’t consider it an insult
This is the first I’m hearing of this. And, I seriously can’t tell whether you’re joking.
Not for the first time, recently, I ask, “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!”
What’s going on is that you are in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by an old narcissist who demands love and fealty from everyone.
They are not watching the road.
Anytime they get the slightest hint that you do not love them unconditionally, the threaten to swerve the car into a bridge embankment and kill you both.
You uncomfortably make conversation on the ride.
It turns out that if you convincingly explain how popular you are for a certain point of view, and insist that “many people are saying…”, the old man will eventually agree with you even if at first he loudly barked his opposition to it.
Eventually you begin to realize that this man has no real principles or beliefs. He is just a ball of oppositional defiance disorder, terribly lonely, unhappy, pathologically and incessantly seeking your approval. And malleable. So so very malleable.
Way to pick a leader, America!
The ruling class wear ideology like a suit. It’s political theatre. Power only ever serves itself, right/left have no meaning at the top.
Bingo. See 1984 for details.
I don’t know if this is some sort of joke, but that’s not an agreement. That’s Trump not wanting a convoluted political beating around the bush, which is what Mamdani was about to do. Such a response would feed the media, but just saying yes and Trump shrugging it off sabotages the media’s obvious attempt of pitting them against each other.
Would be a big plot twist if Mamdani is aligned with Saudis and he start to help Trump…
Right cause all Muslims are the same exact person. /s
What’s he going to do? Rebuild the twin towers so the Saudis can knock them back down again?
Kinda hard to imagine this since he’s Shia and Saudis has a hate boner against the Shiites.
I mean more or less. This is one of the top posts on r/conservative rn
There’s some absolute charmers on there.
me too! i actually sold my maga hat and bought a soviet flag and gave away my belongings to a homeless man who needed it more than i do. i cant way to see all the wonderful things socialism will do for NYC!
One of the comments and below that, the reply:
Don’t worry. It’s for show. Mamdani showed up and kissed the ring like a good boy. Smart move. But Trump isn’t dumb enough to trust this guy. And neither should we be.
Yeah I got the sense that Trump was trolling him a bit.
My God, those edits. Lmao
Yeah, I saw that shortly after that meeting. I go over there a lot to check up on the insanity. It seems that they got their marching orders, and immediately did a 180, lol.
It’s very “We were always at war with eurasia” the way they just gobble up the propaganda is so orwellian.
This meeting most likely benefits Trump more than Mamdani. This gives Trump an opportunity to sweep the vile racism of the final weeks of the campaign under the rug, and lets him appear to be concerned about the working class and affordability.
I’m sure Mamdani and his team understood this but are willing to butter him up so that Trump doesn’t send ICE and the national guard into NYC.
I was not expecting Mamdani to meet with Trump, but looking back it makes sense. Butter him up, and he’ll support anyone. If Elon Musk and JD Vance could get Trump’s support by glazing him, anyone can.
Trump has flip-flopped on positions repeatedly. Gun control, LGBTQ+ rights. It’s all ego for him. Always has been. I guess all you need to do is sweet talk him the right way.
Trump gushing over a dem-soc was not on my bingo card
he’s trying (failing) to poison pill him. “Look at us, we’re good friends! if you don’t trust me, don’t trust him.”
I doubt he’s that smart, he’s senile, his opinion is based on whoever was nice to him last. He literally said he never heard of his policies from TV (insane admission of incompetence which we already knew about).
someone on lemmy said that’s why we have a gereontocracy, they are so easy to manipulate with lobbyists and owning the tv channels they watch.
I do wonder if people have never met a senior in cognitive decline.
If you have you start to see the signs in a lot of the old people in Congress and the white house.
Trump can’t remember what he did last week.
I’ve just remembered that enough people voted both AOC for House and Trump for president that she did a livestream about it asking them why.
Some people really believed that Trump would lower prices. Mamdani and AOC, being dem-soc, focus on people’s basic necessities. As wild as it sounds, there’s actually a link between Trump and the dem-socs. Trump has made some left-wing promises on the economy, which, of course, he has failed to keep, and associating himself with Mamdani might improve his approval on the economy if Mamdani succeeds. Maybe Trump will try to take credit for what Mamdani may succeed to do in NYC
Some people really believed that Trump would lower prices.
anyone who actually believed that after the first four years is a fucking idiot that needs to have their head examined.
was four years of chaos, lies, and millions of deaths not enough for them? maybe the two impeachments? no no, had to be the god damned insurrection on Jan 6!
being a fucking moron is no excuse for voting for that son of a bitch, and I’ll never forgive anyone who voted for him more than once.
There’s really a lot of idiots out there.
Keep in mind that the critical affordability issue as it landed in the news as we recovered from COVID and also supply chain impacts from Ukraine war. During his first term, inflation was pretty much the same as it had been since 1990. Then during Biden’s term, there was 7% then a further 6.5% on top of that and then another 3.4% on top of that and then 2.9% on top of that. So there’s a correlation that things are now even more rapidly unaffordable and in such cases the president inevitably gets the blame whether it makes sense or not.
His first term was pretty incompetent and corrupt, but got nowhere near as maliciously and successfully corrupt as this go around. On the matter of deaths, while the USA by the data was among the worst, almost in the 10 worst nations for per-capita death, the subjective coverage was “globally lots of people are dying”, it’s not Trump’s fault specifically in that perception of “no one has it good”.
Generally speaking, in these circumstances people are just voting against the state of the way things are with less high minded ideals. Trump lost because people hated things under COVID. Harris lost because the economic reaction to recovery was all messed up and so a change was demanded.
I share the shock that people actually went for it, but I’m not surprised that this seemingly nonsensical situation could happen.
Why do all those MAGAs in the pic look like Andrew Tate?
