US Politics

This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments.

Donald Trump hosted Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor-elect, for an Oval Office meeting and news conference that was surprisingly cordial.

Republican lawmakers and pro-Trump news outlets were stunned by how thrilled Trump seemed to be by Mamdani, throwing their plans to cast the democratic socialist as the face of the Democratic party into disarray.

Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she was resigning from Congress in January rather than fight a primary against a Trump-backed candidate.

Perhaps no one was more aggrieved by Trump’s embrace of Mamdani than Elise Stefanik, the New York congresswoman who has made vitriolic attacks on Mamdani as a “jihadist” the platform for her run for New York governor against Mamdani supporter Kathy Hochul. When Trump was directly asked if he agreed with Stefanik that Mamdani is a jihadist, he dismissed the charge.

Trump repeatedly stepped in to defend Mamdani from hostile questioning from outlets like the New York Post and Fox News. When a Fox News correspondent pressed Mamdani about whether he considers Trump to be a “fascist”, the president offered the mayor-elect an unusual life raft. “That’s OK,” Trump said while tapping Mamdani’s arm. “You can just say it, it’s easier than explaining it.”

When asked by a reporter whether he would live in New York under Mamdani’s leadership, Donald Trump says “absolutely”, after his meeting with the mayor-elect today.

Samuel Alito, the conservative supreme court justice, paused a lower court order that new congressional maps in Texas, gerrymandered to favor Republicans, are illegal.
Normal service has resumed on Donald Trump’s social media account, after he spent Friday evening posting photos of himself with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, the president returned to type with a screed against the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, in which he announced his intention to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somali refugees in that state.Although Trump cast this as a change “effective immediately”, the president has no legal power to do so.As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer with American Immigration Council, explains, there is “no legal means by which he can do this. It’s not a presidential power. TPS by law cannot be terminated early. Somali TPS is not set to expire until March 17, 2026. DHS may make an attempt to do this but it would be immediately struck down.”Trump’s post was likely prompted by claims from rightwing activists featured on Fox News they had uncovered fraud among Somalis in Minnesota. In his post, Trump claimed, without evidence, that “Minnesota … is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”Michigan state police responded on Friday to a bomb threat at the home of Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic senator Donald Trump accused of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” on his social media platform on Thursday.Slotkin was not home, according to her Senate office.Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who served in Iraq, joined five Democratic lawmakers who served in the military and intelligence community to remind those in active service that they can “refuse illegal orders”. The six lawmakers recorded a social media video that was released on Tuesday, and quickly became the focus of outrage on rightwing news channels.At a White House briefing, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, falsely said that the Democrats had encouraged active-duty military and intelligence officer to disobey lawful orders.On Friday, a dozen House Republicans who served in the military recorded a video of their own reminding soldiers that they have a duty to obey lawful orders.Justice Samuel Alito of the US supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan likely discriminates on the basis of race.Alito’s order will remain in place until Monday at 5pm while the court considers whether to allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the midterm elections.The court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.Alito handles emergency appeals from Texas.Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Maga Republican congresswoman who was denounced by Donald Trump over her support for the release of the Epstein files, announced on Friday that she is resigning from office, effective in January.Greene explained her decision in a scathing 10-minute social media video in which she defended her record of support for Trump and far-right priorities, like the crackdown on immigration, the defeat of green energy policies and anti-trans initiatives, but said she did not want her district “to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary” against her by a Trump-backed candidate.She went on to argue that she had broken with Trump over just a few issues, including the issuing of H-1B visas to skilled foreign workers, a ban on AI regulation, “50 year mortgages scams”, involvement in foreign wars and the release of files related to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for more than 15 years.“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for,” Greene said.“Loyalty should be a two way street,” she said. “American First should mean America First and only Americans First, with no other foreign countries ever being attached to America First in our halls of government.” Greene has been an outspoken opponent of Israeli’s war on Gaza, with US support, calling it “a genocide”.“If I am cast aside by MAGA Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well,” Greene said.She then hinted at a future role in politics, amid widespread speculation that she could be positioning herself to run for the 2028 Republican nomination.“When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart” Greene said, and understand that “common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it.”“Until then, I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to a new path ahead. I will be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026,” she concluded.The Georgia congresswoman has recently claimed that she was simply misled by the internet when she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and wrote on Facebook in 2018 that wildfires in California had been started by lasers from “space solar generators” controlled by “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm”.The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job”. The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.Perhaps the old left v right binaries really are dead. This was a case of game recognising game – of Queens recognising Queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani got a warmer reception from Trump than from the leaders of his own party – a world turned upside down.The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing to his side, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common – we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.He added: “I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does – the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”That great thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. That shredding noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their playbook to demonise Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.Three weeks ago, Donald Trump posted on his social network 20 photographs of his marble makeover of the bathroom in the Lincoln Bedroom. A few days later, his party was heavily defeated in elections as voters complained that he was more focused on redecorating the White House than bringing down the cost of living.Today, after claiming that he is focused on affordability at a friendly meeting with the mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, the president shared photographs of himself, grinning and giving a thumb-up sign, with Mamdani in the White House.Trump’s caption for the first of the photos was a sharp departure from his previous rhetoric about Mamdani being a “communist lunatic”. It was, Trump wrote on his social media platform, “a Great Honor meeting Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York City!”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 relaxed, 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 assailed Trump as a “despot” and pledged to be the president’s “worst nightmare”.Republicans and pro-Trump media outlets were gravely disappointed by the lack of fireworks at Friday’s Oval Office meeting between New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, and Queens native Donald Trump, who had attacked the democratic socialist as “a 100% Communist lunatic”, before showering him with praise at the meeting Mamdani requested.In the hours before the meeting, the encounter was described by Fox News as Trump’s “showdown with socialism” and equated to a prize fight and billed as “the Battle of the Ages: capitalism versus communism” on pillow salesman Mike Lindell’s TV outlet.As Mamdani made his way to Washington on Friday morning, Rick Scott, a Republican senator from Florida, shared the selfie he posted from his flight with the ominous caption: “Here’s the new face of the Democrat party — a literal communist — on his way to the White House to be schooled by President Trump.”In the end, the meeting went so well for Mamdani that the Democratic Socialists of America mocked the Fox “showdown” graphic in a post that said simply: “Socialism won! Join DSA”.In the immediate aftermath of the meeting, a Fox Business anchor David Asman was stunned, saying: “Just one word – wow.”“Commie Mamdani as the president has [been] referring to his guest in the Oval Office there for the past several months, uh, looked like best friends with president Trump now,” he added.On Friday morning a host on the slavishly pro-Trump outlet Newsmax, Todd Starnes, posted a fantasy of how rough the meeting would be for Mamdani. “SCENARIO: Mamdani enters the Oval Office today only to be greeted by Tom Homan who then personally escorts the Communist back to Uganda.”By Friday afternoon, Starnes was puzzled by the very different reality: “I thought Mamdani was supposed to be a fascist dictator?” he asked. “What the heck is going on at the White House?”As Aaron Fritschner, an aide for Democratic congressman, Don Beyer of Virginia, pointed out: “Republicans spent the whole day in the House making everyone re-vote on the ‘horrors of socialism’ resolution specifically over Mamdani, it’s literally the only thing we did today, and hours later Trump says ‘He has the same ideas I have.’ It’s just beautiful.”The fact that Mamdani seemed to charm Trump into submission baffled even some of his supporters. Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan congresswoman who is a fellow democratic socialist and DSA member, shared video of Trump telling Mamdani it is fine to call him a fascist with the words: “What the heck just happened?”Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, just posted video of Donald Trump nodding in agreement with him as he told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that, during his campaign, “what we found, time and again, is that working people were left behind in the politics of our city, and what we’re looking to do is put those people right back at the heart of our politics, so that we don’t have a situation where we’re in the wealthiest city in the history of the world, and yet one in five can’t even afford $2.90 for a Metro card”.Mamdani was responding to a question from a correspondent for the far-right outlet Newsmax who had asked him if he accepted that, because “Democrats have run New York City for a long time … do you see Democrat policy specifically as being a problem?”Mamdani, who ran partly as a critic of the Democratic establishment, began his reply by saying: “Look, I think that there are many things in our city where we have to own the responsibility of it, things that existed long before the president was the president, and those are also part of the message of our campaign, was to take on a broken politics of the past. And I ran against a number of candidates who represented different versions of that past.”At one point during the exchange with reporters in the Oval Office, Zohran Mamdani took a moment to mention that he appreciated seeing a painting of another New York president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, among the portraits in Donald Trump’s White House.“One thing I also appreciated is in our meeting to appreciate a portrait of FDR, and the incredible work that was done with the New Deal, and also in thinking about what it can look like when the federal government and New York City government work together to deliver affordability, it can be transformative,” Mamdani said.Trump then took credit for selecting the “great portrait of FDR” hanging in the cabinet room he re-decorated. “When the mayor saw that portrait, he said, ‘Sir, do you mind if I have a picture taken by that? It’s an amazing portrait.’”Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The sit-down – which many had anticipated would be contentious, given months of intense rhetoric in which Trump branded Mamdani a “communist lunatic” – instead produced camaraderie, warm words and concrete pledges of cooperation between the Republican president and the self-described democratic socialist who secured a commanding electoral victory earlier at the beginning of November with over 50% of the vote.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump said after the meeting, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”During their Oval Office exchange with reporters, which was staged in a familiar fashion for this White House, with Donald Trump seated behind his desk and his guest forced to stand, Zohran Mamdani referred to conversations he had, last November, with Queens residents who voted for Trump in the 2024 election.Mamdani even said that he spoke with a pharmacist who told him that Trump’s father, Fred, had been a customer.Some of those conversations, days after the election, were recorded and featured in a social media video posted on Mamdani’s YouTube channel before he launched his mayoral campaign. In the video, voters told Mamdani that Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living was a major factor in their decision. He told them that he planned to run for mayor on a platform of freezing rents, making buses free and making universal child care a reality.Here is that November 2024 video:Several observers of the meeting between Trump and Mamdani pointed out on social media that, by embracing the popular young mayor-elect instead of confronting him, Donald Trump seemed to upend well-laid Republican plans to make the democratic socialist the face of the Democratic party, as strategy to cast Democrats as extremists.John DeLillo, a writer, posted a satirical version of the disconnect on social media with this imaginary dialogue between the House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the president:
mike johnson: we are going to make zohran mamdani the face of the democratic party
donald trump: and what a beautiful face it is! look at that smile! we love zohran mamdani, don’t we folks
A close ally of New York’s mayor-elect, the city comptroller Brad Lander, responded to Donald Trump telling Zohran Mamdani it is fine to call him a fascist by posting on social media: “Pretty sure Zohran just charmed Donald Trump into agreeing that he’s a fascist.”The surprisingly cordial Oval Office meeting between Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, and Donald Trump, the Queens native who tried and failed to keep him from being elected, just concluded.Despite the best efforts of a slate of correspondents from pro-Trump outlets selected by the White House to ask the pair questions, Trump and Mamdani refused repeated attempts to goad the two men into conflict.Here are some of the key moments:

Mamdani said that his meeting with the president was “productive” and “focused on the place of shared admiration and love – which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers”.

Trump repeatedly stepped in to defend Mamdani from hostile questioning from outlets like the New York Post and Fox News, When Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed Mamdani about whether he considers Trump to be a “fascist”, the president offered the mayor-elect an unusual life raft. “That’s OK,” Trump said while tapping Mamdani’s arm. “You can just say it, it’s easier than explaining it.”

When the same Fox correspondent tried to frame Mamdani as a hypocrite for flying to the meeting from New York instead of taking a train, which is better for the environment, Trump said “I’ll stick up for you” and pointed out that it is much faster to fly and the mayor-elect is busy.

When asked by a reporter whether he would live in New York under Mamdani’s leadership, Trump said “absolutely”. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help them do a great job.”

For his part, Mamdani was relentlessly focused on the issue of making New York a more fair and affordable place to live, refusing to be knocked off course even by questions from the Pizzagate conspiracist Jack Posobiec who falsely accused Mamdani of planning to tax white New Yorkers more than New Yorkers of color.

Trump wished Mamdani success in running the city he called home: “I think he wants to make it greater than ever before, and if he can, we’ll be out there cheering.”

Trump stressed that he admired Mamdani’s political campaign and distanced himself from how own previously vitriolic denunciations of the democratic socialist as a communist. “I think he’s different, and that can be in a very positive way”, Trump said. “He has a chance to do something really great for New York … we’re going to be helping him”.

Asked by a reporter if he agrees with his Republican ally Elise Stefanik’s characterization of Mamdani as a “jihadist”, Trump dismisses that as campaign rhetoric and says: “I met with a man who’s a very rational person”.

Trump tried hard to attach himself to Mamdani’s focus on affordability. “I congratulated him, and we talked about some things in very strong common like housing and getting housing built, and food and prices,” Trump said. While the president has insisted for months that prices have gone down during his administration, a false claim that is contradicted by government data, his sagging poll numbers make it plain that the public is not buying this big lie. Having previously said that he didn’t want to hear the word “affordability” again, casting is as “a Democratic hoax”, Trump spent much of the appearance with Mamdani stressing that this is one of their shared concerns.
Asked by a reporter if he agrees with his Republican ally Elise Stefanik’s characterization of Mamdani as a “jihadist”, Trump dismisses that as campaign rhetoric and says: “No, I don’t… I met with a man who’s a very rational person”.Throughout this spray with the media, after his meeting with Zohran Mamdani, Trump has been exceptionally cordial.He’s extolled how the mayor-elect “came out of nowhere” and praised his campaign and staff. Trump also defended Mamdani from adversarial lines of questioning, including being pressed by Fox News about why the mayor-elect flew to DC, and whether he believes the president to be a “fascist”. Trump even wished Mamdani success in running the city he called home: “I think he wants to make it greater than ever before, and if he can, we’ll be out there cheering.” More

It’s not as if they were holding hands and skipping down the halls of the White House, but President Trump and New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani appeared to get along well in their first meeting.Trump hosted the 34-year-old Democratic socialist, who defied early expectations to win the city’s Democratic primary, then the mayoral race. And Trump let it be known he was impressed by that, congratulating Mamdani and describing his victory as “an incredible race against smart people”.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as Mamdani stood to his right, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”It was a stark change of tune from Trump’s comments during the mayoral election, when he dismissed the candidate from his own party, Curtis Sliwa, as a lightweight and instead endorsing Andrew Cuomo, the independent and former Democratic governor, while branding Mamdani a “little communist”.It remains to be seen if the good vibes will last between the two political opposites. Mamdani is set to be sworn into office in January.Trump and Mamdani form an unlikely alliance at White House meetingDonald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The incoming mayor had framed the meeting as an opportunity to advance his central campaign platform: making New York more affordable. His promises include free public buses, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes for more than 1m stabilized units, and the city’s first universal childcare program.Read the full storyMarjorie Taylor Greene to resign from US Congress in JanuaryIn a four-page statement, the Georgia representative said the legislative branch has been “sidelined” and accused Republican leaders of refusing to advance conservative priorities such as border security or “America First” policies.The Republican congresswoman who was denounced by Donald Trump over her support for the release of the Epstein files, explained her decision in a 10-minute social media video posted on X.Last week, Greene said that she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative.Read the full storyZelenskyy says Ukraine has impossible choice as Trump pushes plan to end warVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv accepts within days a US-backed “peace plan” that would force it to give up territory to Russia and make other painful concessions.Trump confirmed on Friday morning that Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – would be an “acceptable” deadline for Zelenskyy to sign the deal, which European and Ukrainian officials have said amounts to a “capitulation”.Read the full storyTens of thousands detained and deported during government shutdownUS immigration officials arrested, detained and deported tens of thousands of people in operations nationwide during the federal government shutdown, new data reveals. The arrests have led to a marked increase in the number of people held in immigration jails, with more than 65,000 currently detained nationwide – the highest number of people in immigration detention ever.Read the full storyUS data agency cancels October inflation reportThe US federal government will not publish official data on inflation for October, depriving policymakers at the Federal Reserve of key information as they consider whether to cut interest rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics canceled the release of the closely watched consumer price index (CPI) for October, citing the government shutdown – the longest in history, before it ended earlier this month – and stating it could not “retroactively collect” the data required for the report.Read the full storyRFK Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccine and autismRobert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.Read the full storyDemocrats investigating Epstein decry Andrew’s ‘silence’ Two Democratic lawmakers involved in the US congressional investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday condemned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s “silence” in response to their request that he sit for a deposition.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

A gold Rolex desk clock and a $130,000 engraved gold bar given to Donald Trump by a group of Swiss billionaires have raised questions in Europe and the US about the personalisation of US presidential power.

Eric Swalwell, a seven-term Democratic US representative known for his pugnacious and persistent opposition to Trump, announced he will run for governor of California.

The justice department sued California this week for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition for public universities, alleging the policy harms US citizens.

Donald Trump has assembled the least diverse US government of the 21st century, filling the corridors of power with white men at the expense of women and people of colour, research shows.

The US justice department is recruiting legal experts to serve as so-called “deportation” judges as part of the Trump administration’s effort to carry out its immigration crackdown.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 20 November 2025. More

The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.Perhaps the old left v right binaries really are dead. This was a case of game recognising game – of Queens recognising Queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani got a warmer reception from Trump than from the leaders of his own party – a world turned upside down.The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing to his side, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common – we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.He added: “I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does – the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”That great thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. That shredding noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their playbook to demonise Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.The bromance – as incongruous as Trump laughing and joking with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – went on with plenty of tactile body language. Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and once proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” reported: “It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City, and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.”Once reporters started asking questions, Trump acknowledged that Mamdani has views that are “out there” but predicted he is “going to change” and “is going to surprise some conservative people, actually”.Both men noted that some Mamdani voters had also voted for Trump. The democratic socialist said it was because of “cost of living, cost of living, cost of living” – and he looked forward to delivering with the president on “the affordability agenda”. Trump acknowledged: “Some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.”So when Mamdani was asked about his past description of Trump as a despot with a fascist agenda, he artfully pivoted from points of disagreement back to affordability. The president then interjected: “And I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”What would count as an insult these days? Totalitarian? Tyrant? Dictator? Führer? When a Fox News reporter asked if Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump is a fascist, Trump interjected before he could fully answer the question.“That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK?” Trump said, patting Mamdani affectionately on the arm. “It’s easier … than explaining it. I don’t mind.”Cute – but historians may opine that a US president lightly shrugging off the term fascist was not a stellar moment in the history of the republic.Trump jumped in again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to Washington instead of taking a train, which uses less fossil fuels. “I’ll stick up for you,” the president said, before saying flying was faster and Mamdani was busy.And when someone asked about Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally running for governor of New York state, having branded Mamdani “a jihadist”, the president said he did not agree, calling him “a very rational person”.One can imagine Stefanik being reached for comment and saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”Indeed, it was hard to get a wafer between Mamdani and Trump. The president, who had previously threatened to strip federal funding from the biggest US city if Mamdani won the 4 November mayor’s race, said: “I expect to be helping him not hurting him – a big help. Because I want New York City to be great.”Asked if he would feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration, the billionaire Trump responded: “Yeah, I would, I really would – especially after the meeting, absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.”He elaborated by saying they had discussed how, when democratic socialist Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, Trump picked up “a lot” of his voters on his way to the first of his two presidencies because Sanders had raised issues such as rip-off trade deals. “Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought,” Trump said.The comment implied that the far left and far right ends of the political spectrum are not at opposite ends in a straight line but rather curve toward each other like the ends of a horseshoe. Hence Trump and Mamdani might have more in common than they do with the establishment moderates of their own parties.Certainly both channeled frustration with the status quo and the elites. But as Trump courts oligarchs, plans a lavish ballroom and enriches his own family, his claim to economic populism is hard to swallow.Perhaps his warm handshake with Mamdani on Friday was less about ideology than Trump’s love of a winner leaving the president willing to flatter the mayor-elect.As Trump put it: “It’s an amazing thing that he did.”Perhaps the president recognises a fellow savant when it comes to insurgent election campaigns. Or perhaps two New Yorkers sitting in a room and saying I ❤ NY is a language no one else can quite understand. More

Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The sit-down – which many had anticipated would be contentious, given months of intense rhetoric in which Trump branded Mamdani a “communist lunatic” – instead produced camaraderie, warm words and concrete pledges of cooperation between the Republican president and the self-described democratic socialist who secured a commanding electoral victory earlier at the beginning of November with over 50% of the vote.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump said after the meeting, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”The president congratulated Mamdani on his mayoral victory, describing it as “an incredible race against smart people” – and the two politicians shook hands.Trump added that he had already seen signs the young politician might surprise both conservative and liberal observers alike.For Mamdani, the meeting represented vindication of his strategy to focus the discussion on economic issues rather than ideological divides. He described the meeting as “productive” and “focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City”.“We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities, we spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out,” Mamdani told reporters after emerging from the Oval Office.Trump added: “We had some interesting conversation, and some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.” He pointed to their agreement on lowering crime and building housing.The meeting marked the first face-to-face discussion between the combative Republican president and the defiant democratic socialist.For Mamdani, a leftwing state assemblymember until his shock primary victory, the sit-down presented an early test of his ability to negotiate with a president who controls vast federal resources that the city depends upon. Mamdani’s team made the first move in reaching out for a meeting, all while Trump earlier threatened to withhold federal funding from New York if Mamdani took office, though he has since suggested a more conciliatory posture, telling Fox News: “I’m so torn, because I would like to see the new mayor do well, because I love New York.”The administration has deployed multiple pressure tactics ahead of the meeting. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have signaled plans to escalate operations in New York City, while a number of rightwing congressional Republicans suggested investigating whether Mamdani’s citizenship is valid, despite his naturalization in 2018 after immigrating from Uganda as a child.Mamdani’s team spent Thursday preparing for the encounter through calls with Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and the civil rights leader Al Sharpton to strategize the approach. He also spoke with Robert Wolf, the former chief executive of UBS Americas and a known ally of Barack Obama.When asked on Thursday whether he feared receiving hostile treatment similar to the contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, earlier this year – where Trump accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with world war III” – Mamdani brushed aside concerns. “I’ll stand up for New Yorkers every single day,” he replied.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe incoming mayor had framed the meeting as an opportunity to advance his central campaign platform: making New York more affordable. His promises include free public buses, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes for more than 1m stabilized units, and the city’s first universal childcare program.“I view this meeting as an opportunity for me to make my case,” Mamdani said on Thursday. “It behooves me to ensure that I leave no stone unturned in looking to make this city more affordable.”Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, similarly said Trump’s willingness to meet was evidence of his openness to dialogue across political divides.“President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states, or blue cities,” Leavitt said.But the underlying tensions were not subtle. Trump got directly involved in the mayoral election, dismissing the candidate from his own party, Curtis Sliwa, as a lightweight and instead endorsing Andrew Cuomo, the Independent, formerly Democratic governor, while branding Mamdani a “little communist”. The Trump administration also yanked federal aid for critical infrastructure projects – including the Gateway Tunnel between New York and New Jersey and the Second Avenue subway line – during budget negotiations.Among New York voters, Trump garnered only 27% approval compared with 70% disapproval in CNN’s exit polling from the mayoral election. However, 10% of Trump’s 2024 voters also cast ballots for Mamdani, suggesting there is indeed overlap in their populist economic messaging, despite their vast ideological differences. More

The justice department sued California on Thursday for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition for public universities, alleging the policy harms US citizens.The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the eastern district of California, marks the third time this week that the Trump administration has sued California. In addition to challenging the state’s in-state tuition policy, the lawsuit argues that California unlawfully extends eligibility for scholarships and subsidized loans to undocumented students.Among the defendants are the state, top California officials, and the state’s two public university systems: the University of California and California State University.“Federal law prohibits aliens illegally present in the United States from receiving in-state tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state US citizens,” reads the complaint. “There are no exceptions.”California law does allow some students to qualify for in-state tuition rates, which are lower than out-of-state tuition, even if they technically qualify as non-residents. This includes students who have had “three full-time years or the equivalent at any combination” of California high school, California adult high school, or California community college.The California Dream Act, two bills passed in 2011, permits undocumented students to apply for, and obtain, state-based financial assistance, according to San Francisco State University. Undocumented students cannot receive federal financial aid for college.The justice department’s civil complaint alleges that California policy on undocumented student tuition is “unconstitutional” and wants a judge to “declare it illegal and permanently enjoin its enforcement”.“California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” said Pamela Bondi, the US attorney general. “This marks our third lawsuit against California in one week – we will continue bringing litigation against California until the state ceases its flagrant disregard for federal law.”The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against policies in other states, including Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kentucky and Texas. Half the country now has similar laws to California’s.In June, after the administration sued, Texas ended its decades-old law. And Florida last year scrapped its law that allowed in-state tuition for high school graduates who weren’t in the country legally.Supporters of the state tuition breaks argue that they don’t violate federal law if they provide the same rates to US citizens in the same circumstances – meaning they are residents of the state and graduates of one of its high schools. The California Dream Act also allows such students to apply for state-funded financial aid.Many of the students were brought to the US by their parents when they were children, and supporters of the laws say they are as much a part of their communities as US citizens.The complaint cites an executive order signed in February that directs federal departments and agencies to block undocumented people from receiving public benefits. Another executive order signed in April directs officials to stop enforcing laws and practices that favor undocumented people over US citizens. The lawsuit argues that the Republican president’s orders enforce federal immigration laws.The University of California defended its decades-old in-state tuition policy.“While we will, of course, comply with the law as determined by the courts, we believe our policies and practices are consistent with current legal standards,” it said in a statement.The lawsuit comes weeks after the California supreme xourt let stand a lower-court ruling that the University of California’s policy barring students without legal status in the US from campus jobs is discriminatory and must be reconsidered.University system officials had warned that the decision would put them in a precarious position as they negotiate with the Trump administration after the withdrawal of federal research funds.The UC is dealing with federal grant suspensions and a White House demand that it pay a $1bn fine over allegations, including antisemitism and the illegal consideration of race in admitting students to its Los Angeles campus.The California State University system is the nation’s largest and among its most diverse, with more than 460,000 students. More than a quarter of undergraduates are first-generation college students, according to the university system.The University of California serves about 300,000 students. More

Two Democratic lawmakers involved in the US congressional investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday condemned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s “silence” in response to their request that he sit for a deposition.Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House oversight committee, and Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the panel, were among the Democrats who earlier this month sent the former British prince a letter seeking his cooperation in their inquiry into Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.“Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s silence in the face of the Oversight Democrats’ demand for testimony speaks volumes,” Garcia and Subramanyam said Friday, a day after the deadline they had set to receive Mountbatten-Windsor’s response.Documents the committee has obtained – many of which came from Epstein’s estate – along with testimony from abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre, “raise serious questions” the ex-prince “must answer, yet he continues to hide”, the lawmakers continued.“Our work will move forward with or without him, and we will hold anyone who was involved in these crimes accountable, no matter their wealth, status, or political party. We will get justice for the survivors.”Democrats on the investigative committee appear to have few options to compel Mountbatten-Windsor to talk. As the minority party, they lack the power to issue subpoenas, and the Republican chair James Comer has not commented on if he would take such a step against the former prince.Even if one was issued, Mountbatten-Windsor – who has strongly denied wrongdoing – could avoid the legal penalties for non-compliance by not coming to the United States.The lawmakers issued their statement days after Donald Trump had signed into law the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which will compel attorney general Pam Bondi to release documents related to the government’s handling of his case within 30 days.Trump, a one-time friend of Epstein, tried to stop the bill from moving through Congress, but backed down when it appeared clear it had the votes to pass the House of Representatives. However, the law includes exemptions for the release of documents that could undermine national security and jeopardize investigations.Critics have accused Bondi of being a Trump loyalist who has used the law enforcement agency’s powers to protect the president and retaliate against his allies. Last week, she announced that she would investigate ties between Epstein and Democrats, shortly after Trump demanded she do so.In a letter to Bondi on Friday, Garcia wrote that “politically motivated investigations are not a legitimate justification for withholding or redacting records” under the newly passed law.“There is already a concern president Trump will attempt, on dubious legal grounds, to exploit a provision which allows [the] DoJ to withhold information relevant to ongoing investigations,” Garcia said, echoing a concern expressed by Republican senators this week.He also noted that the committee is awaiting the justice department’s response to a subpoena they issued in August for documents related to Epstein, which Garcia said can be shared in their entirety with lawmakers, even if they are involved in an investigation.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Any additional federal investigations launched by the DoJ or the president do not impact our subpoena,” Garcia wrote, while adding that “the identity of survivors and potential victims” can be protected.In September, the justice department turned over more than 33,000 documents to the committee in response to its subpoena, but most of them were already publicly available.A source familiar said that the justice department is “sitting on a mountain of information” that may total up to 300 gigabytes of files. These include interview transcripts, court documents and emails, as well as records from the investigation that led to Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea to sexual abuse charges in Florida, and the sex trafficking investigation that led to his 2019 arrest in New York, sources said.As he campaigned to return to the White House last year, Trump, alongside his allies, made statements indicating that there was more to be revealed about Epstein and his ties to global elites.But in July, the justice department and FBI released a memo saying that they had no further information to share about his activities or relationships, while concluding that his death was a suicide, despite conspiracy theories to the contrary.The announcement sparked an uproar among Trump’s supporters, leading to a drawn out congressional campaign to force release of government files related to the case that culminated in this week’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. More

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.Countering decades of science showing vaccines to be safe, the US public health agency’s website was changed to say: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”In the interview, Kennedy said that while the large-scale epidemiological studies of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had found no link to autism, and that studies of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal had also shown no link, there are gaps in the vaccine safety science.“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made’, is just a lie,” Kennedy said in his first interview with a major print publication.Public health experts, doctors and scientists have decried the update as the kind of misinformation the CDC has fought for decades as it promoted the use of life-saving childhood vaccines both in the US and abroad.Notably, the largest US county’s health department issued a statement Friday saying “there is no new evidence to support” the CDC website’s change pertaining to vaccines and autism – and the statement added that the modification is “not accurate”.“For more than 25 years, researchers around the world have rigorously examined whether vaccines cause autism,” the statement from the Los Angeles county health department said. “Over 40 high-quality studies involving more than 5.6 million children have found no link between any routine childhood vaccine and autism. This conclusion is supported by leading health authorities, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Department of Public Health, the World Health Organization, and leading research institutions.“The increase in autism diagnoses reflects improved screening, broader diagnostic criteria, and greater awareness – not a link to vaccines. The spread of this harmful myth stigmatizes members of the autism community and their families.” More