There were two surprises last Friday. One was the meeting between New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Trump. Given that the former had referred to the latter as a despot and fascist and Trump in return had called him a lunatic communist, you might have expected sparks to fly. That did not happen and what occurred was almost a love-fest.
The highly anticipated Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani – the mayor-elect of New York City, the US president’s beloved home town – was hardly the combustible tête-à-tête many had predicted. For the moment at least, the two New Yorkers appeared friendly, smiling and cautiously optimistic about the work they might accomplish together.
Neither revived their hot campaign trail rhetoric, in which they cast each other as diametrically opposed political adversaries. Trump had labeled Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and urged voters to back his opponent, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. In turn, Mamdani had assailed Trump as a “despot” and pledged to be the president’s “worst nightmare.”
But Trump went out of way to gush over Mamdani, even running interference when conservative media reporters tried to spark a conflict.
When asked if he would retract his attacks on the president as a “despot” and an “authoritarian”, Mamdani was prepared. He avoided answering the question directly, saying: “We are very clear about our positions and our views, and what I really appreciate about the president is the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers.”But before the reporter could press Mamdani further, Trump interjected: “I’ve been called much worse than a despot and so it’s not that insulting.” He predicting Mamdani might change his mind after “we get to working together”.
Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich later followed up on the matter, asking whether Mamdani still considers Trump to be a “fascist”. Mamdani, cheeks flushed, began to respond, but Trump jumped in again. “That’s OK,” the president said, jovially tapping Mamdani’s arm and telling him it was “easier” to just say yes, which Mamdani did.
This has had people scratching their heads wondering what is going on, and most of the speculation has centered on Trump’s abrupt about-face, trying to get into his psyche. Ideas have ranged from him liking people who are winners and being impressed with Mamdani’s mercurial success in going from an unknown to winning handily in just one year, to thinking that Mamdani’s appeal to the young and his popular message of seeking affordability is something he feels that he should latch on to, to even speculations that Trump develops man-crushes on handsome men in suits.
Who knows? The good thing for Mamdani is that before the election Trump had vowed to cut off all federal funding for the city and make life as hard as possible for Mamdani to function. His new statements that he wants New York to succeed and would be happy to live in the city now will make Mamdani’s life easier, if Trump does not backtrack. It also undercuts Fox News and other conservative media and wealthy groups and the Israel lobby that had attacked him and said that people would leave the city in droves if he won. They must be wondering what the hell happened to make Trump suddenly abandon them. I definitely don’t know.
The other surprise is the announcement by MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene that she will be resigning her seat on January 2nd. She cited as reasons that because Trump had been viciously attacking her, his cult-followers were physically threatening her and that she felt betrayed after being one of the biggest supporters of Trump and MAGA, even parroting the absurd claims that his loss in 2020 had been fraudulent.
One puzzle has been why she is resigning almost a year before her term ends in November. She said that Trump was planning on running someone against her in the primary but that does not make sense. She could simply have said that she was not going to run again and used the rest of her term to push her own agenda.
Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of her arch foes, is not buying her reason that MTG was opposed to what the Republicans were doing on health care. She says that MTG has been undermining almost every program to expand health care access. The only item she had been concerned about was the elimination of Obamacare health insurance subsidies in the deal struck to end the shutdown, because it struck home personally, with MTG saying that it would increase her daughter’s premiums substantially. AOC also said that MTG chose January 2nd since on the 1st, MTG becomes eligible to get a congressional pension, having served the minimum of five years. She will have to wait until she becomes 62 years old to be paid the pension but it will be a nice financial cushion for her in her old age, something she does not care about for other old people.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise resignation from Congress late on Friday, saying she refused to be a “battered wife” following her public fallout with Donald Trump, has been slammed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman and Greene’s frequent sparring partner.
“She’s carefully timing her departure just 1-2 days after her pension kicks in,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement on her Instagram account, and criticized her voting record on healthcare.
…After her service to Trump, [MTG} said she objected to being “expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me”.
“I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better,” Greene said.
But Ocasio-Cortez said Greene “is saying a lot but her ACTIONS have not backed up the rhetoric. For all her talk, she’s STILL voting with them to gut healthcare … ”
Greene voted in the summer for cuts to Medicaid and the reduction of enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, but then in October criticized the ACA cuts as premiums soared.
Ocasio-Cortez also repeated some of her criticism of shares bought by Greene earlier this year before Trump said he was pausing tariffs. Greene has denied any impropriety in her stock trading.
Congresswoman Jasmine Crocket also poured scorn on MTG saying that Trump’s attacks have made her fearful for her safety, saying that she and other Trump critics have faced far worse threats for far longer and are still in there fighting.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Sunday appeared to show little sympathy for her colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after the Georgia Republican announced her upcoming resignation from Congress.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” the Texas Democrat, long a foe of President Donald Trump, said Greene’s decision came after she was on “the opposite side of the president” for only one week.
“You’re on the other side of the president for one week, and you can’t take the heat?” Crockett said. “Imagine what it is to sit in my shoes, to not only be on the opposite side of him, but to have people like her who are constantly fanning the flames of hate and imagine what those threats look like when you literally are someone like me.”
…But Crockett on Sunday pointed out that multiple other Republicans, notably Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have also faced the president’s ire in light of their support to release the files on the disgraced, deceased financier.
“I mean, listen, he’s upset with Thomas Massie, and so he’s gone after him. He’s upset with Boebert, he’s upset with any Republican that actually signed the discharge petition,” Crockett said. “But somehow they were able to weather the storm. Why is everyone else able to stand and you can’t?”
So why did MTG choose to quit and why quit early? It may be that she has lined up some lucrative gig that she will take on after she leaves. We will have to wait and see what she does.
As a rough guess, Mamdani was effusively charming, focused on what he wanted to do for NYC, emphasized their common love for NYC, emphasized their common populist ideas, and was not the slightest bit conciliatory,
It won’t last. Trump is surrounded by fascists who will remind him of all the fascist things he wants to do, like kill Congresspeople who say that illegal military orders should not be obeyed.
One of the things I noticed was that there were some photographs taken of them together, and of Mamdani alone, in front of the portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt. I thought that was a deliberate symbolic choice by Mamdani, since I think he would agree that many of his policies are similar to Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, and have a similar motivation of helping the common people — and of course, many of Trump’s executive orders and Project 2025-based actions have been attempts to roll back everything to do with FDR policies.
I now wonder if the White House fascists who are alert to symbolism will take petty revenge by having FDR’s portrait removed.
First, I am trying to imagine New Yorkers “leaving the city in droves” because of some random election, but I am not succeeding.
Then, Mano, with MTG, it’s got to be what you say: money, being in the spotlight, some power. She’s got to have something like that in the works, otherwise she’d never leave this cushy job. The always-reliable motivation of today’s Republicans is “What’s in it for me?”
But, no more Jewish Space Laser Lady with her own Democratic weather! We may never see your like again (we hope.)
I agree with one analyst who said that MTG expects a lot of no-win votes in 2026 as Trump wilts, and she doesn’t want to have to take a position on Trump vs MAGA.
But it’s also possible that she thinks this is the way she can get a plurality in the Republican primary for Senate next year. Trump told her no, but she is ignoring him.
one could also cynically wonder if mamdani made some private communication that his ideals were showboating and he had no intention of making real estate in nyc less extortionate to the poor. fucko would love that.
The opposition message to Mamdani, which was being pushed very hard, was canards that Mamdani “hates Jews” and “supports Hamas”. It would not surprise me to find that at least some Jews who bought into that messaging would seek to flee out of fear of anti-Jewish policy under Mamdani.
I’ve seen an alarming report that Mamdani wants Arabic numerals taught in all New York public schools. I think it started out as a joke but many people were seriously alarmed.
This does not say good things about the US educational system.
Cynical indeed! But I don’t think it holds up.
Let’s imagine that Mamdani is indeed a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But he’s kept his sheep costume intact the whole year, up to and past the election, and it’s only in the White House that he lets it all slip, and tells Trump “Psst! I actually totally OK with predatory lending, gouging pricing, and real-estate bubbles! You’ll get a cut of the action! Support me! Follow my lead with the affordability rhetoric! We’ll pull the wool over everyone’s eyes!”
The trouble is, Trump has dementia (or something like it), and the White House as a whole has the OPSEC of a bunch of excited fascist 5-year-olds, and a heel-turn of this magnitude would leak out within hours if not minutes. And Mamdani is presumably politically savvy enough to know this — so why would he?
Holy crap.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mamdani-arabic-numerals-nyc-schools/
Next up: “Mamdani wants to force schools, and government, to use a writing system first developed in the Middle East!”
(Latin<Etruscan<Greek<Phoenician<Proto-Sinaitic)
it’s nice to have a convincing counterpoint, thx. we’ve had a few very high profile dem heel turns now, so another would be unsurprising, but u made a solid case.
I think Mamdani is playing Trump like a fiddle.
As long as I’m being pedantic, should be (Western) Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Actual Eastern Hindu-Arabic numerals (Unicode says “ARABIC-INDIC”) 0-9 look like: ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩
@Bébé Mélange #4, @Owlmirror #8
Mamdani didn’t have to start out as a wolf, he just had to read the room to get elected. Orange Fuckhead could have schmoozed Mamdani on his victory and made a “no-strings” offer to Mamdani to be nice to him, which Mamdani was not worldly enough to reject. No need to abandon any of your principles! Yet. The bait is set.
Has Orange Fuckhead been replaced by
Folger’s CrystalsBizarro Orange Fuckhead? Because Non-Bizarro Orange Fuckhead has never ever ever ever made a no-strings offer to be nice to anyone ever.I would put Mamdani using dark magic, and the dark magic actually working, as more probable than that.
file thirteen @#12,
Today Mamdani said he stood by his earlier descriptions of Trump.
@Owlmirror #13
Orange Fuckhead promises all sorts of things he reneges on. I can’t imagine Orange Fuckhead ever keeping a promise when he stood to gain from breaking it, then it really would be Bizarro Orange Fuckhead. But I’m sure “promise” means a different thing to him than it does to you and I. I really think he thinks he has a get out of promise free card, and he might be right when it comes to the magats. I suspect he’s made hundreds of no-strings offers! Just not kept any.
@Mano #14
That is reassuring though.
@ 11 Owlmirror
You speak of trivia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals
Not Roman, that’s the point.
I can see no mystery here.
Mamdani is this week’s Elon Musk. He’ll be public enemy number 1 again soon enough.
As for MTG, unsurprisingly AOC has got her number:
I can see no reason to be puzzled that she’s done that, nor ponder deeply if there might be more to it. She doesn’t strike me as a complicated character.
It is entertaining watching her be the boogeywoman of the Left for years and not feel herself in any danger, then disagree with Trump for about 48 hours and get herself some bodyguards. She may have bleated about “violence” but she never really believed herself in any danger from the Left, but she knows her crowd, people, she knows her crowd.
If she hasn’t already got one lined up, she’ll certainly be shilling for this or that soon enough, likely on a similar circuit currently being haunted by the husk of former (VERY briefly) UK Prime Minister Liz Truss. The grift never ends.
Author Rick Perlstein posted some good takes on the Mamdani/Trump meeting (and other topics) from a seemingly random guy on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rick.perlstein/posts/pfbid02y2TCKL2vtHPcu33DcbNKLcDpuPz29LDPmhSz2rSvoKDZWVeTHiGFzn5jzpZPSkrel
Not that it’s a surprise, but I find it amusing that MTG compares her relationship with Trump to being a battered wife. The dream is over, poor thing.
It would be simple and probably a bit satisfying to write off MTG as the space laser lady. To list her faults and ridiculous statements and hang them like an albatross around her neck. But if that’s all we do with her it would be a waste.
Whether it was a performance or the earlier weirdo bit was an act doesn’t matter. After years of being a banner carrier for lots of crazy ideas, she very publicy acted like she’d been deprogrammed. Cut herself loose from the conspiracies and lies to someone who can acknowledge that when you have to pay a lot more for something you need, you get closer to being poor. And if you already are poor and we jack up your healthcare prices you get a lot closer to being dead instead.
Obvious. A low bar. But it’s there and she can be used as an example now. Both for conspiracies and politically.
Conspiracy: “Look, even the space laser lady doesn’t believe in this stuff anymore.”
Politics: “They may be your tribe but even one of their biggest cheerleaders no longer thinks she can afford the GOP and Trump agenda.”
About Trump…he admitted he expected to meet the imprisoned Brazilian ex-president, before being told Bolsonaro has been arrested again while preparing an escape.
Clearly, the White House was ready to whisk him over to USA if he had made it to the US embassy.
Also, Boris Johnson has been caught lting under oath.
It has nothing to do with the topic, I just want to bring some cheerful news.
@22 -- don’t tell me it’s cheerful news until the fucker has suffered some meaningful consequence for it. Until then it’s just more evidence he considers himself, justfiably so far, as above peasant considerations such as mere laws.
I suspect with Mamdani, the explanation is pretty simple. Mamdani was charming, buttered Trump up in his presence, and Trump, being the narcissist that he is, took said buttering up as his due and was perfectly friendly. As others have noted above, there’s no way it will last, because Trump will revert to form and listen to the voices in the White House like Miller and start hating Mamdani again soon enough. Hopefully this will at least confuse some of his followers who have longer memories than Trump, though; remember he almost lost a chunk of MAGA back in 2020 when he tried to get them to actually take the Covid vaccine. Some of his followers are a lot more dedicated to specific parts of the platform than Trump himself ever was.
As for Marjorie Taylor Greene… the impression I got from her is that she really was a true believer: believed that the election had been stolen, believed the QAnon stuff that there was a cabal of pedophiles in the government and that Trump was going to expose and arrest them. So a believer less in Trump himself than what he appeared to be standing for. So when Trump actively tried to bury the Epstein files, that flew in the face of the QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories that Trump was the one who would expose all the horrible people in government. And when she tried to push on that, she got pushback. So I think she’s actually describing the situation as she actually sees it: she believed in Trump and supported him, and now that she’s trying to hold him to one of his promises he’s trying to destroy her.
Of course, she’s an idiot for believing much of that stuff in the first place (and in the idea that Trump considers loyalty to be a two-way street), and an obvious grifter as well for hanging on until just after her pension availability kicks in, but neither of those contradict the possibility that she actually mostly believes what she’s been saying.
FDR served more than two terms. Of course they agreed on this portrait.
@jenorafeuer #24: I agree with almost everything you posted. Although I don’t feel like I care enough about MTG to know what she truly believes. I just wasn’t paying that much attention to her.
My real disagreement is about her pension. I don’t think it’s a grift to get a pension. I think the real grift is that I will never get one. My parents and my grandparents had pensions. I’m not young but there was never any reasonable chance I’d get one, not in my entire life. It never really mattered what choices I made, I was had few to nonexistent opportunities to draw on a pension. And social security has definitely not picked up the slack. That’s the grift.
@lanir #26: The real pension grift is that now everybody who wants to save for retirement is more-or-less forced to invest in the stock market. This artificially raises the price of stocks, which are mostly owned by the rich. One of the reasons that stock market valuations have become so disconnected from fundamentals is the tsunami of 401(K) money flowing in to index funds every month.