Hours before his scheduled Oval Office meeting with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, US President Donald Trump said he believes the two leaders “will get along fine,” despite their sharp ideological differences and a heated election season.

Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Trump acknowledged Mamdani’s radically different worldview but said both ultimately want the same thing — “a strong New York.”

“He’s got a different philosophy. He’s a little bit different,” Trump said. “I give him a lot of credit for the run. It was a successful run… runs are not easy. But I think we’ll get along fine. Look, we want the same thing — we want to make New York strong.”

Trump also addressed Mamdani’s pointed victory-night message, in which the mayor-elect urged him to “turn the volume up” on the TV before warning, “To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

The President conceded that he, too, had taken aggressive shots during the campaign. “It was… hard to be totally friendly toward the opponent,” he said.

“He had some interesting opponents, but he ran a good race. I don’t know what he means by ‘turn the volume up’… He has to be careful what he says to me. But he was very nice in calling, and we’re gonna have a meeting. I think it’s going to be quite civil.”

The White House, however, kept up its sharp rhetoric. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it “speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House,” adding that Trump is willing to meet “anyone” for the sake of the American people.

Trump himself had labelled Mamdani the “Communist Mayor of New York City” in a Truth Social post announcing the meeting.

Mamdani, for his part, sounded unbothered. At a briefing in New York on Thursday, he said he intends to outline his administration’s priorities and seek “areas of agreement” with the president. “I’m not concerned about this meeting,” he said.

“I view it as an opportunity to make my case. It behoves me to leave no stone unturned in making the city more affordable.”

He added that he would raise concerns over public safety, affordability, and economic stability during the Oval Office discussion.

The meeting marks a striking turn after months of confrontation, in which Trump relentlessly attacked Mamdani as a “communist,” predicted economic decline under his leadership, and warned of potential federal funding cuts to New York City.

In a rare move, Trump endorsed Mamdani’s rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent. Mamdani ultimately defeated Cuomo by nearly nine percentage points on November 4, becoming the first Democratic socialist elected mayor of the nation’s largest city.