President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani held a press conference in the Oval Office to discuss their meeting.

REPORTER: Mr. President, Republican Elise Stefanik has campaigned multiple times by calling Zahra Mamdani a jihadist. Do you think you’re standing next to a jihadist right now in the Oval Office? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, I don’t, but she’s out there campaigning and, you know, you say things sometimes in a campaign. She’s a very capable person, but you really have to ask her about that, but I don’t particularly, I think, I met with a very, I met with a man who’s a very rational person. I met with a man who wants to see, really wants to see New York be great again, and I can say again, because New York was great. You know, when I came down to Washington initially, the city was so hot, it was doing great. We were having some telltale signs of problems. We had a mayor that was not doing a great job, but still, it was moving along, and it went bad. It really went, you know, pretty bad, and he can, I think it’s been at lower points, but it went pretty bad. I think he can bring it back. Now, the question is, will he bring it back all the way? Will he bring it back greater than ever before, which is, I guarantee, that’s his wish. I think he wants to make it greater than ever before, and if he can, we’ll be out there cheering. I’ll be cheering for him, okay? Thank you very much, everybody.

RealClearPolitics Videos