A flurry of social media posts from Maga influencers have laid bare the disorientation felt by members of Trump’s base at the spectacle of Friday’s cordial Oval Office meeting with Mamdani, who the president previously painted as a “communist lunatic”.
“Wild to allow a jihadist communist to stand behind the president’s desk in the Oval Office. Sad to see,” wrote far-right activist Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s most fervent online backers.
She returned to the theme several times. “I had to drink a bottle of ginger ale today after seeing Mamdani in the Oval Office because it physically nauseates me seeing Islamic jihadists infiltrate our government and continue to get a pass to promote Islamic jihad and anti-American values with zero push back,” Loomer wrote.
In Friday’s news conference, Trump retreated from his previous all-out opposition, forecasting that Mamdani “can do a very job” as mayor, despite having previously threatened to withhold funds from New York for electing him.
Loomer seized on that to predict that the Republicans would suffer catastrophic defeats at next year’s congressional elections and in the 2028 presidential election.
“The Democrats will have a landslide in the midterms after today. Mamdani is the face of the Democrat party,” she wrote. “How will the GOP campaign ahead of 2026 if Mamdani and his policies are now considered rational and good for New York?”
Elise Stefanik, a member of Congress who is running to be New York state governor next year, had a similar reaction.
“We all want NYC to succeed,” she wrote. “But we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. If he walks like a jihadist. If he talks like a jihadist. If he campaigns like a jihadist. If he supports jihadists – he’s a jihadist.”
Inna Vernikov, a Republican New York city councillor, wrote that she was “disappointed” that Trump had “legitimized” Mamdani.
“We should never KOSHER a Marxist with Jihadist aligned views,” she posted. “Did we forget that @ZohranKMamdani wants to cease the means of production, disproportionately tax white neighborhoods, & eliminate the anti-terror unit? Did we forget that he refused to condemn ‘globalize the intifada,’ refused to condemn Hamas.?”
Benny Johnson, a pro-Trump influencer, seemed to implicitly condemn the president’s approach by highlighting a hardball question posed by fellow activist, Jack Posobiec, who asked Mamdani if he was planning “race-based property taxes” on white people.
“This is how it’s done @JackPosobiec,” he wrote.
But not all Trump supporters were downcast.
Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist who has praised Mamdani’s skills and depicted him as a political threat, suggested Trump was using political subtlety.
“He’s going to boost Mr Mamdani, whose policies will crater the city,” Bannon said in a discussion with Posobiec on his War Room podcast. “Trump will let him collapse because he’s a Marxist jihadist.”
Some Mamdani supporters seemed as disorientated as Trump backers by the show of harmony.
Jumanne Wiliams, New York’s public advocate and a Democrat, called the meeting “pretty shocking”.
“My belief is that it would have went well, just knowing who our mayor is. But I don’t think anyone could have expected this,” he told Spectrum News NY1.
“I think the proof is in the pudding. But we may have staved off what was [an] inevitability in just a few weeks. And so the longer we can stave off harmful things to our city, the better.”
Bill de Blasio, a former Democratic mayor of New York who endorsed Mamdani’s candidacy, said the meeting reflected his own meetings with Trump in the White House.
“I think Trump has actually a lot of respect for Mamdani. As they say, game respects game,” he told CNN. “I had this same exact experience. I went to meet with Trump 10 days after the 2016 election. What I learned is, if you engage Trump and you show him you’re not afraid, he is actually willing to do some give and take.”
