In an America accustomed to crisis-sized headlines and political theatrics, the quiet civility that unfolded inside the Oval Office this Friday felt almost like a glitch in the national storyline. President Donald Trump and New York’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani walked into their long-anticipated meeting after months of bruising rhetoric. Trump had cast Mamdani as too radical for the city he now leads. Mamdani had called Trump a fascist on the campaign trail. Commentators predicted tension, confrontation, at the very least a headline-generating clash.

What happened instead was a scene so unexpectedly calm that even the American press seemed briefly startled.

Trump opened the meeting by acknowledging their differences but pivoting quickly to common ground. “We agree on a lot more than I thought,” he told reporters, a line social media has been highlighting non-stop because it ran so sharply against the campaign’s tone. Mamdani, who has spent months emphasizing New York’s affordability crisis, returned to the message that got him elected: “Working people have been left behind in New York. One in five cannot afford a $2.90 fare. It’s time to put those people back at the heart of our politics.”

The meeting stayed focused on governance as the two discussed cost of living, public safety and housing. Their visions diverge in many ways, yet both men have always understood that New York’s challenges are too large to be managed........

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