The "good fellowship" between Trump and Mamdani (their photo op at the Oval Office)

C C

C C

Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy"
Valued Senior Member
The nostalgic result of how much Trump still adores NYC. But on the negative side for the GOP, this love-fest throws a monkey wrench into its plans to portray Mamdani and his membership in the DSA as the new political face of the Democratic Party (at least for the short term).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2WAY TONIGHT (Mark Halperin)

VIDEO EXCERPT (circa 1:25 minute mark): And this afternoon in the Oval Office there were different stakes, a different situation. But the photo opportunity -- the Q&A between the President and Mayor Mamdani, was more friendly than anyone could have imagined. Truly extraordinary.

The graciousness that they showed towards each other even as reporters tried to sow discord between them. They were consistently supportive, focused on affordability and focused on working together, a mutual respect, a mutual agenda.

And if you've seen this president in photo opportunities with someone he likes, you know that even then there's occasionally a little bit of passive aggressiveness, a little bit of teasing. There was none of that.

I'll show you one moment, right off the top, just to give you a flavor of just how friendly this was. One of the things many of the reporters tried to do was to sow discord between the two men by citing their past statements about each other.

So they asked President Trump about calling Mamdani a communist. They asked Mamdani about saying the president was a fascist.

And the first time Mamdani was asked about the fascist remark, he played it down. And then the second time he was asked about it, he started to dodge it. Then he started to give an answer where he was clearly going to play it down.

And look at what the President of the United States did. Sam, if you can roll that...
  • REPORTER: You're affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?

    MAMDANI: I've spoken about...

    TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say, okay. It's easier. It's easier than explaining it, I don't mind.
That pat, that double pat. Again, if you're a student at all of Donald Trump -- that's bonkers. And it's great for those of us who live in New York, who think it's in the city's interest to have the two of them get along.

The whole thing was like that. The whole for more than 25 minutes -- just a love affair. And we'll look at some more of it.

I thought it might be friendly. But I would defy anyone to say that they predicted it would be as friendly as it was...

video link: Do you think you're standing next to a Jihadist?
 
Last edited:
C C said:
The nostalgic result of how much Trump still adores NYC. But on the negative side for the GOP, this love-fest throws a monkey wrench into its plans to portray Mamdani and his membership in the DSA as the new political face of the Democratic Party (at least for the short term).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2WAY TONIGHT (Mark Halperin)

VIDEO EXCERPT (circa 1:25 minute mark): And this afternoon in the Oval Office there were different stakes, a different situation. But the photo opportunity -- the Q&A between the President and Mayor Mamdani, was more friendly than anyone could have imagined. Truly extraordinary.

The graciousness that they showed towards each other even as reporters tried to sow discord between them. They were consistently supportive, focused on affordability and focused on working together, a mutual respect, a mutual agenda.

And if you've seen this president in photo opportunities with someone he likes, you know that even then there's occasionally a little bit of passive aggressiveness, a little bit of teasing. There was none of that.

I'll show you one moment, right off the top, just to give you a flavor of just how friendly this was. One of the things many of the reporters tried to do was to sow discord between the two men by citing their past statements about each other.

So they asked President Trump about calling Mamdani a communist. They asked Mamdani about saying the president was a fascist.

And the first time Mamdani was asked about the fascist remark, he played it down. And then the second time he was asked about it, he started to dodge it. Then he started to give an answer where he was clearly going to play it down.

And look at what the President of the United States did. Sam, if you can roll that...
  • REPORTER: You're affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?

    MAMDANI: I've spoken about...

    TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say, okay. It's easier. It's easier than explaining it, I don't mind.
That pat, that double pat. Again, if you're a student at all of Donald Trump -- that's bonkers. And it's great for those of us who live in New York, who think it's in the city's interest to have the two of them get along.

The whole thing was like that. The whole for more than 25 minutes -- just a love affair. And we'll look at some more of it.

I thought it might be friendly. But I would defy anyone to say that they predicted it would be as friendly as it was...

video link: Do you think you're standing next to a Jihadist?
Click to expand...
Yeah but Trump says contradictory things all the time. There’s nothing to stop him calling for Mamdani to be executed for treason tomorrow.
 
exchemist said:
Yeah but Trump says contradictory things all the time. There’s nothing to stop him calling for Mamdani to be executed for treason tomorrow
Click to expand...

Given that Trump in first meetings of the past gave the initial impression of getting along well with leaders of both former and enduring Marxist states (Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping)... I suppose in the end, it's all up to whether Mamdani wants to keep buddying up to Trump and being open to deals. Blowing that smoke... ;)

Charlie Gasparino's cynical X post:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1991993807332663672
 
Last edited:
Thirty Minutes in the Lion’s Den: The Interview Trump Thought He Controlled
"White Rose USA — November

There’s a strange thing that happens when you watch the full thirty-minute interview instead of the clipped version the internet tosses around.

The edges soften. The masks slip. And you start to see the actual geometry of the interaction — where power sits, where insecurity leaks, where the tone changes, where the truth speaks by accident. The viral clip makes it look like a moment. The full meeting reveals a dynamic.

This wasn’t a showdown. It wasn’t a humiliation. It wasn’t a triumph for either man. It was something far more revealing: a case study in how a bully behaves when he can’t rely on fear, and how a principled politician behaves when he refuses the role of the victim.

The meeting begins as all Trump meetings do — with noise.

The first five minutes are pure Trump: monologues disguised as greetings, numbers inflated beyond physics, scattered recollections of the 1980s like the era froze and preserved him in amber. You can practically hear his brain flipping through its greatest hits, trying to set the tone: This is my room. My chair. My story.

But Mamdani doesn’t react to any of it.

And that is the first hinge of the meeting.

A man like Trump needs emotional feedback to function. Fear works. Flattery works. Even anger works. Mamdani gives him nothing. He sits there with the calm of someone who refuses to let the other person set the emotional tempo. It’s a small thing, but with Trump, it’s enough to break the cycle.

Then comes the shift — the “gracious Trump” phase.

People mistake this for maturity or diplomacy. It’s not. It’s a reflex Trump only deploys when he can’t dominate the room. The tone goes soft, the eyebrows lift, the compliments come out in forced, syrupy bursts.

“You’re doing great work.”

“New York is lucky to have you.”

“You’re a very smart guy.”

It sounds statesmanlike until you remember the same man called him a communist threat two weeks earlier. What’s happening here isn’t respect — it’s adaptation. A chameleon trying to match the color of the wall.

Trump is gracious when graciousness benefits Trump.

As Mamdani shifts to policy, Trump drifts into autobiography.

This is the most telling stretch — minutes twelve to eighteen. Mamdani tries to talk like a mayor-elect:
transit
housing
Rikers
federal cooperation
immigrant protections

Real issues, real stakes, real governance.

Trump responds by vanishing into his own mythology. Crime statistics from memory that don’t exist. Grievances about prosecutors. Stories from “the old days.” Complaints about how unfairly he’s been treated.

It’s not sabotage — it’s incapacity.
Mamdani is speaking a civic language Trump’s brain can’t decode.
They aren’t having the same conversation.
They aren’t even on the same continent.

Then comes the moment everyone’s dissecting — the “fascistic tendencies” line.

And yes, it happened in the room, not after. Mamdani doesn’t weaponize the word. He doesn’t turn it into a headline. He does something more dangerous: he analytically names the pattern.
Immigrant raids.
Political retribution.
Targeting dissent.
Erosion of checks and balances.
Threats against the judiciary.

He lays out the evidence and names the behavior: fascistic tendencies.

Trump nods and smiles like someone being told he has an excellent golf swing.

It’s not bravado. It’s not denial.
It’s something almost sadder: he doesn’t understand the language of critique unless it’s blunt and emotional. Mamdani moved the discussion into the realm of political analysis, and Trump’s instincts don’t live there. So he simply… accepts it. Not because he agrees, but because he can’t absorb what the words actually mean.

The last ten minutes are the clearest portrait of Trump’s psyche.

Once Mamdani refuses to bend, Trump compensates by overcorrecting into flattery:
“You’re going to surprise people.”
“I feel very comfortable with you.”
“We’re going to get along great.”

It’s dominance disguised as benevolence. When Trump can’t conquer, he tries to adopt. He folds the other person into his narrative: You and I are the same. We’re allies. You approve of me. I approve of you.

It’s a kind of political camouflage — digest the threat by complimenting it.

Mamdani doesn’t take the bait.
He doesn’t fight.
He doesn’t flatter.
He just continues speaking plainly.

Which leaves Trump in the one position he hates most:
performing civility for an audience that isn’t fooled.

What the meeting really showed

The full interview isn’t about Mamdani calling Trump a fascist.

It’s not about Trump pretending to be gracious.

It’s not about a progressive mayor meeting an authoritarian president.

What the meeting showed is simpler and more damning:

Trump is only powerful when the room fears him.

Take the fear away, and he becomes oddly gentle, strangely polite, and completely unable to dominate the conversation.

People think tyrants rage because they’re strong.

But the truth is they only rage when they know the room will absorb it.

Mamdani didn’t absorb it.
So Trump didn’t rage.
He folded.
Nicely. Neatly.
Like a man who knows the cameras are watching and doesn’t want the world to see what he looks like when the mask cracks.

And if there’s a lesson here for the rest of the country, it’s this:
Fear is the oxygen of authoritarianism.
Take it away, and even a strongman starts to sound like a man."

- Bruce Fanger (Facebook)






 
I assumed all that "call me a fascist" had come from a prior meeting and that this meeting had glossed it over.
Interesting that Mamdani had alluded to it during the 30 minutes.
It puts a different complexion on the clip that was shown widely.

My own hypothesis (based only on the short clip ) was that Mamdani is an extremely intelligent man and ,quite obviously is principled in a way that Turnip (as others refer to him) is absolutely not.

I also see that Mamdani has to be circumspect and think on his feet plus he does have his constituents who he needs to represent in an honorable and unselfindulgent way.

Trump we know by now but Mamdani is an unknown quantity and we shall see how this plays out.

Edit your facebook man implies that Trump folded very easily.I hope his interpretation is right-it is perhaps not the received wisdom re his behaviour but ,still it is often said that he is a pussycat to people's face and a loutish boor when they are out of the room.
 
C C said:
Given that Trump in first meetings of the past gave the initial impression of getting along well with leaders of both former and enduring Marxist states (Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping)... I suppose in the end, it's all up to whether Mamdani wants to keep buddying up to Trump and being open to deals. Blowing that smoke... ;)

Charlie Gasparino's cynical X post:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1991993807332663672
Click to expand...
In the light of DaveC426913 ’s subsequent post it may be more complex than that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: C C
DaveC426913 said:
Thirty Minutes in the Lion’s Den: The Interview Trump Thought He Controlled
"White Rose USA — November
Click to expand...
This is a bullseye. This is the Trump that I see. And millions think all the GOP need do to pull the party back into some semblance of a conservative small-gubment coalition is stand up to Trump - he will fold like a cheap tent. Of course, we still have that voter base who feel billionaire authoritarianism is the only way to make things happen faster. And they'll vote for some other billionaire who promises quick fixes, AI data centers in every cornfield, subsidies for white babies, and a robot in every closet. And that other billionaire will be smarter, saner, less sociopathic, and far more dangerous.
 
exchemist said:
In the light of DaveC426913 ’s subsequent post it may be more complex than that.
Click to expand...

Again, though, Trump is usually "business-like" with anyone who wants to similarly be that way on game day, regardless of previous venomous rhetoric exchanged. JD Vance was even an instance of that -- with the qualifier being at least some appearance of apology or a "That ___ was just the usual political stratagem, nothing personal." token. (How JD Vance Won Over Donald Trump)

An exception like Zelenskyy wasn't really such, since the Ukrainian president never truly, tactically mellowed before and up to that meeting.

Advocates of each side are going to take data about any _X_ incident and interpret or spin-doctor it according to the pre-existing narrative template of their group, to make their preferred representative appear heroic. Likewise, there is another pundit doing similar with their own bias, trying to salvage the day for Trump in a potential tide of disgruntled old-school Republicans who detest him chumming with a socialist, who can't handle such magnate pragmatics and populist techniques.

They wanted Mamdani as their poster-child, and now Trump has arguably sabotaged that (temporarily). OTOH, centrist commentators and analysts who are residents of NYC might indeed relish the superficial appearance of cooperation. Even the moguls who threatened to leave if Mamdani won.
_
 
Last edited:
C C said:
Advocates of each side are going to take data about any _X_ incident and interpret or spin-doctor it according to the pre-existing narrative template of their group, to make their preferred representative appear heroic. Likewise, there is another pundit doing similar with their own bias, trying to salvage the day for Trump in a potential tide of disgruntled old-school Republicans who detest him chumming with a socialist, who can't handle such magnate pragmatics and populist techniques.

They wanted Mamdani as their poster-child, and now Trump has arguably sabotaged that (temporarily). OTOH, centrist commentators and analysts who are residents of NYC might indeed relish the superficial appearance of cooperation. Even the moguls who threatened to leave if Mamdani won.
_
Click to expand...
I think the litmus test is to examine what each of them actually talked about.
What did Trump spend his words on? Rhetoric, his resume, flattery.
What did Mamdani spend his words on? The issues facing the people.
 
  • Like
Reactions: C C
One of the more obvious explanations is getting surprisingly little traction: Trump heard some tidbits about Stalin immediately prior the meeting and he figures that Mamdani is that kind of "communist". Within a week he'll be signing an executive order mandating "transgender for everybody".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top