President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have flipped the script on political rivalry and become, of all things, text buddies, sources say.
The surprising back-channel began after their November White House sit-down, a meeting that defied expectations and saw two leaders who had once traded barbs exchange phone numbers and start directly messaging each other, people familiar with their conversations exclusively told Axios.
For months before that historic Oval Office encounter, Trump and Mamdani had been at each other’s throats publicly. Trump warned New Yorkers that electing Mamdani would spell disaster, calling him a “communist” at one point, and Mamdani called Trump a “fascist,” language straight out of a political cage fight.
President Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani text each other, Axios reports.
Full Story: https://t.co/4TQ4hxYwFe pic.twitter.com/UBZz9lbC35
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 13, 2026
But in person, the tone was almost sitcom-level friendly. Upon setting eyes upon the young politician, Trump quipped to Mamdani, “Wow, you are even better-looking in person than you are on TV” when the mayor arrived in the Oval Office.
Soon after, the two began texting, reportedly at least a couple of times a week. Messages have apparently ranged from policy tangents to routine check-ins, though exactly what they talk about isn’t public. Some reports even say the topics have included zoning, real estate development and broader policy issues.
For Trump, the text thread may be a way to keep lines of communication open with a Democrat who suddenly holds a lot of political sway in his hometown. Trump’s occasional threats to withhold funding from New York and deploy the National Guard have loomed over Mamdani’s early months as mayor, so a less hostile private channel might serve both sides.
NOW – Trump on Mamdani: “I can tell you, some of my views have changed. And we had discussions on some things. I’m not going to discuss what they were, but that I feel very confident that he can do a very good job.” pic.twitter.com/pf1Zepp9jT
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 21, 2025
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, seems to be playing it cool about the whole texting thing. It seems that they feel free to be forthright in their conversations with each other. Mamdani has said, “The president and I have always been honest and direct with each other about places of disagreement.”
According to the New York Post, their private messages even survived at least one public spat. Mamdani once called Trump on the phone to criticize US military action in Venezuela, and Trump later said he was “surprised” by the call but didn’t close the door on their relationship.
So what are they texting about? It’s unclear. Maddeningly vague. At the very least, we also know that Mamdani has tried to find common ground with Number 47 by talking to him about a pharmacy that Trump’s dad used to visit and certain New York City neighborhoods. But the existence of the texts themselves suggests a surprising level of mutual respect, or at least curiosity, between two very different political figures.
Trump-Mamdani really parallels Roosevelt-La Guardia.https://t.co/xdNV0iSO1L https://t.co/Uu1p2beeE9
— iii_JLR (@iii_JLR) January 14, 2026
Meanwhile, political colleagues and commentators are having a field day. Liberals can’t quite believe a democratic socialist is in Trump’s contacts list. Conservatives shrug that Trump just loves having a larger rolodex. Late-night jokes have already started floating around online.
At the same time, the relationship hasn’t been all smooth. Recent differences over foreign policy, like Venezuela, have shown cracks in the rapport. But that may be part of the point. They text because, in politics, you sometimes have to pick up the phone even when you disagree.
For now, Trump and Mamdani’s unusual digital friendship remains one of the more unexpected political storylines of 2026. Text about it, and swipe right.
