Charles Feldman: US Correspondent on Trump's upcoming meeting with New York mayor Zohran Mamdani

Trump is set to meet with recently elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday following months of public conflict. 

The US President announced the meeting in a Truth Social Post which said the "communist mayor" requested the meeting.

US correspondent Charles Feldman told Heather du Plessis-Allan, "Trump is at heart a New Yorker, and I think he's going to want to present himself as somebody who does have New York's interests at heart."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Charles Feldman, UIs correspondent with US. Now, Charles, Hey, how
you doing. Yeah, I'm very well. You ever heard of
Guan Chile before?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I can't say that I have, but I've probably eaten
it without knowing.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's probably a lot of things with eaten without knowing
what we're doing. Charles, listen to what's going on with
Trump and the seditious stuff. Is he being serious?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Ah? Wow, Well, I tell you, if he is, it
is one of the most extraordinary things ever from a
president of the United States. I mean, thank you, how
extraordinary this is. At a news conference or the press
briefing that they have every day at the White House,
a reporter actually had to ask the president's press secretary

(00:43):
if President Trump was serious about having Democratic Congress people
executed for sedition, and the press secretary said, no, no, no,
you know, he was referring to, you know, the fact
that his orders are law lawful, and if they were,
you know, defying lawful order, that would be seditioned. But

(01:05):
that actually is not what President Trump said on his
social media. Is he serious? You know a lot of
people over these past few years, they've always said, well,
you know, he's not serious about this, he's not serious
about that. And you know what, it's turned out that
on many of those things he was serious.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Okay, yeah, well, this is the difficulty with him. It's
very hard to know, isn't it? From thing? And yet
we find ourselves distracted by He's got a meeting with
Zoran Mandamin. Is it tomorrow in the Oval Office?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yes? Yeah, Friday in the Oval Office, And it was
at the request apparently of the mayor elect of New
York City. And they are not exactly friendly toward one another.
Trump did not support him during the mayoral race, and
Trump consistently refers to him incorrectly as a communist. He's not.

(01:59):
He is a self proclaimed social Democrat, which which is
sort of unusual in the United States anyway in terms
of political affiliation. But you know what, what Mondonie is
doing is smart by wanting to meet with the President Trump,
because at the end of the day, all cities sooner
or later need federal assistance, new York City among them.

(02:22):
And why antagonize somebody who at some point is going
to have to sign some checks.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
How do you think it's going to go down there?
I mean, you could, because these guys are the polar
opposite of each other. Right, so does it actually is
it in the best both of their best interests to
get on with each other or to create a scene
in there?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Now? I think that my guess is it's going to
go surprisingly well. You know, President Trump is a transactional politician.
If he thinks that by doing something it's going to
be the result is going to be favorable to him,

(03:02):
he will act accordingly. And you know, keep in mind
that Mandami got a pretty big vote popular vote in
New York City and pulled off quite a feat. He
was somebody that didn't have any name recognition, he didn't
have a lot of money to begin with, and yet
he managed to defeat people who were considered very seasoned politicians.

(03:25):
Trump is not a fool. He's going to look at
that as somebody who managed to pull off something that
was quite spectacular. And you know, Trump is at hard
in New Yorker, and I think he's going to want
to present himself as somebody who does have New York's
interests at heart.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, Cheles, thank you very much for talking us through.
I appreciate it. Charles Feldman, us correspondent For more from hither,
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