WASHINGTON (REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump and incoming New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani swapped compliments and pledged to collaborate on tackling crime and affordability in the nation's biggest city at a friendly meeting at the White House on Friday.

The political opposites - a Republican billionaire and a young democratic socialist - forged a rapport in their first encounter. Mamdani, 34, stood by Trump's desk as the 79-year-old president smiled up at him and patted him warmly on the arm.

"We agreed on a lot more than I thought," Trump said after inviting journalists in following a private meeting. "We have one thing in common: we want this city of ours that we love to do very well."

The meeting in the Oval Office far exceeded Trump's prediction earlier on Friday that it would be "quite cordial." The men, two different generations of New Yorkers, announced nothing new on policy except what seemed to be the launch of an unexpected, politics-shifting professional friendship.

"What I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers," Mamdani said.

Trump said he was happy to put aside partisan differences. "The better he does the happier I am," Trump said.

At the meeting, Mamdani and Trump laughed off some of their earlier insults on one another.

Trump defended the Uganda-born Mamdani, who will be New York City's first Muslim mayor, from some of the criticisms he has faced. "I met with a man who was a very rational person," Trump said about Mamdani.

Mamdani's energetic, social media-savvy campaign vowed to focus on affordability issues, including the cost of housing, groceries, childcare, and buses in a city of 8.5 million people. New Yorkers pay nearly double the average rent nationwide.

Inflation has been a major issue for Americans, and it's one on which they give Trump low marks. Just 26% of Americans say Trump is doing a good job at managing the cost of living, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.

The US federal government is providing $7.4 billion to New York City in fiscal year 2026, or about 6.4% of the city's total spending, according to a New York State Comptroller report.

After his first term as president, Trump decamped from Manhattan to become a Florida resident. A reporter asked Trump if he would consider moving back to the city of his birth with Mamdani running it.

"Yeah, I would," Trump said, "especially after the meeting."