Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani steps into the Oval Office for what promises to be either a historic handshake, a political duel, or the most awkward coffee break since diplomatic history began. President Donald Trump has already labelled him a “Communist", which, depending on your media diet, is either a statement of ideological precision or the political equivalent of calling someone a “space alien".

Mamdani, for his part, insists he’s a democratic socialist. Trump insists that’s close enough. America insists on popcorn.

Their meeting, despite the theatrics, matters. It is not a celebrity cameo. It is the mayor-elect of America’s largest city walking into the office of a President who has repeatedly targeted cities like New York as evidence of what he calls “radical mismanagement".

In short: this is not small talk. This is a stress test for the country.

TWO MEN, TWO WORLDS, ONE VERY SMALL ROOM

Ideologically, these two are separated by the distance between Queens and Mars.

Mamdani comes from the world of tenant protections, free bus fares, and immigrant-powered civic optimism. Trump comes from a world where the surest path to national safety is a wall, a tariff, and a well-timed executive order. They are the political equivalent of oil and water—except oil and water........

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