From Newsmax: After trading some of the harshest political insults in recent memory, President Donald Trump and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani appear to have struck up a surprisingly cordial relationship through private text messages.
Trump, who previously called Mamdani a “100% Communist lunatic,” and Mamdani, who has labeled Trump a fascist, have been exchanging text messages for months, Axios reported Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the correspondence.
The private exchanges began after Trump and Mamdani swapped phone numbers at a White House meeting in November, according to Axios. Although the content of the messages has not been disclosed, the continued contact suggests the once-adversarial relationship has softened behind the scenes.
The exchange followed a notably warm Oval Office meeting in which Trump publicly praised Mamdani, a sharp shift from his earlier campaign attacks. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, also softened his rhetoric after the meeting, despite having been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics earlier in the year.
Mamdani, the youngest New York City mayor in more than a century and the first Muslim to hold the office, rose to national prominence through frequent clashes with Trump over immigration, policing, and foreign policy. Earlier this month, he said he spoke directly with Trump by phone to protest U.S. missile strikes in Venezuela and the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, calling the actions illegal and an act of war—though he later described the exchange as direct but civil.
Axios reported that the text exchanges have continued since that call, though neither side has disclosed how frequently they communicate or what topics are discussed. The quiet backchannel highlights a notable shift in tone between the White House and the mayor of the nation’s largest city after months of public hostility and personal attacks.
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