Mamdani's meeting with Trump shows a power gap

Mamdani's meeting with Trump shows a power gap

The president has warned he might cut federal money and send the National Guard to watch over the Big Apple.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has a meeting with President Donald Trump that reveals their big difference in power. | Adam Gray for POLITICO

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump holds all the cards in his Oval Office talk Friday with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. And he has a huge edge over the soon-to-be mayor.

The hot-headed president has promised to slash New York's federal money and might send in the National Guard because Mamdani won. Trump's border boss Tom Homan is once more warning he'll pack the city's streets with immigration officers and kick out loads of people. The president's friends in Congress want the Ugandan-born mayor-to-be to lose his citizenship.

"The city or the state can't function without the federal government, and the federal government controls the money," said John Catsimatidis, a billionaire oil exec and grocery store magnate who often talks with Trump. "Look, the president will do what he wants. He cares for New York, no doubt about it. He cares for New York, but he dislikes that the socialists are taking over New York."

The upcoming meeting between the two opposing leaders will shape the city's direction for the next four years. It holds wider meaning for Trump, who's tried to steer the political path of Democratic cities while Democrats aim to regain national influence. He's clashed with Democratic mayors in Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles — conflicts that New York officials are keen to avoid. For Mamdani, whose far-left run split his party, Trump poses a tough and likely lasting challenge. The mayor-elect can't risk Trump punishing the city or seeing his power reduced over the next four years.But giving in to him — or seeming to back down — won't sit well with the backers who pushed him into City Hall.