Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump and Mamdani's SHOWDOWN In the Oval Takes A Turn

Episode Date: November 22, 2025

Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett discuss Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump's interesting Oval Office meeting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, guys, every era has its defining rivalry. David versus Goliath. Ollie versus Frazier, Taylor Swift versus Scooter Braun. But today, we were blessed with a new entry into the Pantheon, the cosmic grudge match between Donald Trump and Zoran Mamdani. Roll the tape. Let's see those fireworks. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.

I want him to do a great job, and we'll help them do a great job. He wants to see no crime. He wants to see housing being built. He wants to see rents coming down, all things that I agree with. I expect to be helping him, not hurting him. A big help. I think this mayor can do some things that are going to be really great. I think you really have a chance to make it great.

Guys, what happened here? Trap! I wish I, man, I would, there was, what do you say? Showdown with socialism. That was the huge Kairon on Fox and the lead-up to this. Showdown with socialism. It's so funny because when I saw, we were earlier today, I was like, what time is this meeting? Because I thought we might end up being in this room.

And I had this feeling that was like, I think they're going to, I think we're going to get a twist. I really did think we're going to trust. I can't believe how much. I can't believe how much. Yeah, it's interesting. I wouldn't have guessed, I was leaning away from fireworks and more just like boring. I would not, I did not anticipate like the love fest from Trump to Mbondani. Yeah, I think what I realized in hindsight is it was in both of their interest because Zoran has an interest on behalf of New York City.

And Donald Trump has an interest in great television. and both would lead to having as cordial a meeting as humanly possible. And to your point, Trump said as much. He was like, we have the most important, powerful information. He's like, we have the most influential people in the world in this room. None of them care, but now all the press are here for you because he likes Zoran. But like he literally said to, he said, I feel very confident he can do a good job. I think he's going to surprise some conservative people, actually.

And some very liberal people, he won't surprise because they already like him. He was asked if he'd feel comfortable living in New York with Mamdani as mayor. And Trump said, yes, especially after the meeting. we agree on more than I would have thought, paging Bill Ackman, right? You know, Jonathan Martin tweeted, you know, Trump likes a winner. He sort of predicted this, like Trump likes people

who are perceived as winners. And I do think that's true. I also think Zoron's message, when heard just unfiltered by Fox or anything else, to Trump, is gonna sound unobjectionable, right? Because he's gonna say like, yes, I believe in public safety. You doesn't have a hammer and sick on the back. Yeah, exactly.

I want to bring the rents down and I want it to be more affordable. He's going to say things that don't seem objectionable because it's not filtered through the crazy caricature of like this is, you know, he's going to institute Sharia law. Yeah, there's also two other things. One, Donald Trump is from New York, but Manhattan High Society has always been kind of a thorn and a side. They didn't really welcome in. There's a lot of the people that like the Upper East Side Brahmins. Like those are the people that didn't like Zoron.

So they have a lot of the same villains. The other part of it, too, is there have been all these reports about how charmed New York's elite have been. or people that were skeptical have been when they finally get to meet him. But those people have ideological commitments. Like, they have actual policy preferences and concerns about how he'll be mayor. So they may be charmed by him, but they're still not going to support him. Trump has no such commitment. So he comes in, he's charming, he's deferential in some way to get some trust and all of a sudden Trump loves him.

Also, we are like, you know, two weeks from now, we're like a couple Fox segments away from him. Oh, 100%. I will kill him. This is a fling. This is not a man. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to be, it's a, it's going to burn.

hot is going to burn quick. For sure, for sure. I will say, I'm not kidding when I say this. Donald Trump likes good-looking men. How many times have you been like the Air Force One pilot was so fucking hot? I wanted to rail the guy. We did a corkscrew. I really do think like that was the vibe in the room. Also, Trump is like the textbook, like archetypical shit poster. He will talk smack about Mondani on truth social or Twitter. And in the room, he's like, hey, how you doing? Like Tim Miller always talks about how in 2015 in the primaries, they would have the debates. It would be like 900 people, Republicans on the stage. Trump would be dunking on all of them and then he'd walk over during the commercial break

and be like, hey, Jeb, how's your wife, you know, how the kids... I mean, remember, Kamala Harris just wrote that in her book when he called her, not the night of the election, but he called her one other time, I forget. Maybe it was when Biden dropped out. I'm only 60 days in, so. Yeah, right. And it was like so nice to her.

Oh, oh, after the assassination attempt. Right. And she called him, and he's like, oh, you're too nice to me. I'm going to have to stop saying mean things about you in public. Yeah, he's easy. It's like, look, yeah. A little flattery, little whatever. Like you guys, I mean, he's a long road ahead of them, but like, you know, he's got to deliver for the state.

But my God, like, can you think, imagine a better kind of validation in these early days for Republicans, you know, New York Post readers, rich people that weren't sure about Mom Dani. I do think it's just a genuinely good thing. And I think there are people that have been critical of Mamdani for keeping on the Eric Adams Police Commission. I'm sure there would people that are viewing this as some kind of capitulation. Why? Because they don't like cops? because they don't like local police. They don't like local police.

Because for sure. To find I love it. But when Trump said he was going to send troops into San Francisco, he gets on the phone with the mayor. The mayor has a lot of credibility in the early days of what he's done on public safety. And he backs off. Like those personal relationships genuinely matter. And the fact that this meeting went so well, I do think means that there could actually be a phone call that happens before Trump does. certain things that might actually genuinely result in something better, at least as long as this

sort of whatever detente can hold for a bit. But yeah, to your point, something bad on Fox News, you know, we're off to the races. It also makes, it reminds me of the one non-authoritarian right-wing world leader that he seems to have a decent relationship with Claudia Scheinbaum in Mexico. It's like, she's like, she's a sort of a leftist populist. Yeah. You know, like there's some overlap there where he has a little respect for some like tough people on the left. Yeah. You know? He admires strength.

Speaking of a lack of strength, J.D. Vance did not attend today's meeting. He said he was going to fake having a tummy ache. So I do hope his tum-tum feels better. Most fucking humorless, scold, lame, fucking try-hard. Dork. It's such a great contrast between like Donald Trump, who, for all his faults, and we have talked about many for 10 years, is a skilled politician and or can be a skilled politician. And J.D. Vance, still looking for just an ounce of charisma somewhere.

Also, clearly didn't know where the meeting was going, right? He wasn't trying, this is not a meeting to miss. This was quite cordial. You have a tummy ink. He didn't have a heads up from the boss. Now he's trying to jump on later and he's like, oh, this was classic Trump. It's the best. It's so funny.

He reminds me of Mitt Romney being like, I enjoy humor. Humor is fun. Yeah, look, so in the past, Trump called Mamdani 100% communist lunatic. My little communist mayor. He suggested Mom Dani might be in the country illegally and was open to deporting him. He said he might arrest Mum Dani if New York prevented ICE from harassing New Yorkers. He threatened to pull funding from New York. We got none of that today.

And for his part, Mom Dani was asked about calling Trump a fascist and a despot in the past. Let's watch that. He asked about your comment called President a fascist. And your answer was, both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views. Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist? I've spoken about... That's okay. You can just say yes.

Okay. It's easier. It's easier than explaining it. I've been called much worse than a despot, so it's not that insulting. So just for context, like the first time I'm done, he got that question, he ducked it, and he was like, we've both been clear on our positions and views. And today we're focused on areas of agreement and blah, blah, blah, like message. And that clip was a reporter following up.

And honestly, Trump just like jumping in there and being like, it's cool, man, don't worry about it. It's like why he is great at politics. It's also good to know that calling Trump a fascist is no longer equivalent to a death threat. Oh, good point. Which is what the right. He said, I don't mind. Yeah, which is what the right was saying in the weeks after the Charlie Kirk assassination. It is just that version of Trump, right?

Like if you're, if you're like a, if that guy, if he wasn't attached to the fucking Stephen Miller and like, because, because all he wants is, he wants this. He wants people to, he wants people to like him, have good meaning. seem powerful, be respected, be told he's a success. And he hitched his wagon to the fucking biggest right-wing dipshits on planet Earth. Well, they hitched their wagon to him. And that's why they're. And I would love to be a fly on the wall for see Stephen Miller's reaction. Here's Stephen Miller's reaction to this meeting.

Oh, he must be outraged. Yeah, I think it's sort of a hitch. Reach around. So Trump was also asked about some pretty discussing comments that Republican gubernatorial candidate, at least tophonic had made in the past about Mamdani. Let's hear that exchange. Republican-Alea Stefani has campaigned multiple times by calling Zora Mamdani a jihadist. Do you think you're standing next to a jihadist right now in the Oval Office?

No, I know, but she's out there campaigning and you say things sometimes in a campaign. I met with a man who's a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again, and I can say again, because New York was great. Did he just call him Naga? It's like, yeah. Well, it's so interesting, right? Because he, like, he undercuts Stefanik, who's running for governor in New York State.

And then it's, like, pretty honest. Like, he kind of gives up the game. He's like, look, you know, people say shit they don't believe during campaigns. It's a very honest answer. Yeah, it's. Well, it's, he was close to sort of giving up the whole game of his entire career, which is just like, well, he was just campaigning. You know, you go out there and you say shit, and that's not real. It's also so funny because here's, at least Stefanik, because the House majority is so slim,

She gives up a leadership role to become, was it the UN? What was the job? She doesn't get it. Now she says she's going to run for governor of New York. She's way behind Hockel, who's like all of a sudden more popular. And then Trump just undercuts you from the Oval. It's beautiful thing. Beautiful thing.

It's also funny to me, at least, that Amid al-Shara was in the Oval Office like two weeks ago, like an actual former Al-Qaeda member. But anyway. We're lucky he didn't confuse him for him. Well, yes, we don't know that yet. Maybe we'll get a read-up in the meeting. So, Momdani was relentlessly on message. He took almost every single question back to costs and affordability.

Here's, I think, my favorite example. You say you love New York City. Does New York City love President Trump? New York City loves a future that is affordable. And I can tell you that there were more New Yorkers who voted for President Trump in the most recent presidential election because of that focus on cost of living. And I'm looking forward to working together to deliver on that affordability agenda. I got a lot of votes.

God, that, but like, I got a lot of votes. See, that, you know that that's just something he said in private, which is like, look, like, there's a lot we can do together. You got more votes in New York because people want affordability. That's what I, like the, this is Mom Dani's skill, too, which is being very on message while not seeming like a politician, but actually next to Trump in a couple of those moments, like the, the fascist, call me a fascist. Like even in that moment, you're like, oh, like, you're, you're trying to, you're being,

you're bringing pretty pretty careful here, which is good. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. It's a good lesson for others who need to have a good relationship with Trump or want one, which is like, you don't have to fucking give him the gold bars and all the other shit and just, you know, glaze him in the oval. You can be like, you can flatter him while still maintaining your own self-respect and dignity. Why do we think you ended up with Gretchen Whitmer covering her face with a folder? Well, she had a different situation, which is, like, if during that press conference,

conference where Mamdani standing next to Trump, he starts saying all of these horrible things and attacking people and saying, I'm going to lock someone up. I think then Mamdani's in a much more difficult situation, which is like, do I say something about it or do I just sit here and smile? And so she just, she was in the wrong, she was in the room at the wrong moment. Right. Or didn't turn the wrong moment into the right statement. Yeah, exactly. Momdani also, like, I bet you can catch Trump on good days and bad days when he's in, like, well, the other day when his voice was gone because he'd been screaming at someone over trade, the whole day. Like, he was in a good mood. The vibes were good. I bet the vibes were good

because Mamdani brought all the press down to the Oval Office, which is what Trump likes. They were posting photos of the steak out of his poors there. He got threatening to execute Democrats out of his system yesterday. So now he's just feeling a little lighter today, I guess. He was fussy, but he got his numb nums. But the other bar, too, is they actually both have something in common, which is because Mamdani has so much credibility with the left, there'll be people that are critical of what he does here, but nobody thinks he's doing this because he's of capitulating his core values. And by the way, same for Trump, right?

Like, he's not going to lose MAGA because he's doing this. No one's going to think he's sort of been brought over to the communist or moved to the middle. So they kind of both have more space to operate because they have an authentic, like, connection to the people that love them most. So, like, there's something about, there's a lesson in that for other Democrats, too. Did anyone think at the beginning of 2025 that Donald Trump would shower more praise on Zoran Mamdani than Chuck Schumer. Still, to this, like, he has said,

Donald Trump in that meeting said more nice things about Momdani and praised him more than Chuck Schumer ever has. That's a sad but true point. Yeah, it's funny, to your point, love it. Like leading up to the meeting, Fox News was really like setting it up like a prize fight. And then after they spent a lot of time

but the Christmas tree lighting that they're doing this evening before Thanksgiving. Mumdani was also, they were talking about how he saw a really, could pick a portrait of FDR that Mumdani really liked. And Maldani asked to take a photo with it. And Trump seemed surprised that Mbondani was an FDR fan. And then he goes, then he's like, I found that portrait myself.

I was rooting through the vaults. There's something so sweet about this. Like, look at my treehouse. Look at all the cool sticks I found. I found all these cool sticks. I made it for you, Mom. I feel like he was probably lying. Yeah.

I don't think he was rifling through all the, uh, I think he was. Well, I mean, he is very focused on the rent. He is. Achilles versus Hector. Hatfields versus McCoys. Sharks versus Jets. Batman versus Joker. Magic first bird.

Cats versus Roombas. Chris Christie versus Snacks. Yeah. Coke versus Pepsi. Thank you for watching this episode of Pats of America here on YouTube. Please subscribe to America here on YouTube because you know what? Ben fucking Shapiro was kicking her ass and we don't like that and we want to beat him. That's it.

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