It's a conversation that will resound across America next week as millions travel to be with their families for Thanksgiving: "You know your dad is a fascist, right?" to which might be responded, "Okay, but find something else to talk about. Affordability, or, I don’t know, you both love New York City."
For almost an hour on Friday, President Donald Trump and mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani, who have spent months slinging mud and calling each other names, exhibited perfect Thanksgiving dinner decorum, and maybe we can all learn from it.
Going into the meeting, expectations ran high that tempers might flare. Would we see a repeat of the angry confab Trump had with Vlodymyr Zalenskyy months ago, full of fiery recriminations? But it turns out, that was never really in the cards.
It was to neither man’s advantage to cause a scene on Friday, much less to be judged the cause of such a scene. So they just smiled and pleasantly passed the rhetorical stuffing.
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That didn’t stop the reporters gathered, like troublemaking teenagers, from trying to pick fights between Trump and Mamdani. It went something like, "Hey Dad, Mr. Green Energy over here flew instead of taking the train."
But Trump wouldn’t take the bait. On at least seven occasions, including that one, he came to Mamdani’s aid, refusing to call him a jihadist, saying he’d be comfortable living in Gotham under Mamdani, and even suggesting the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young socialist might change in office as he himself has.
The most telling moment came when Mamdani was pressed on whether he still believes that Trump is a fascist. Mamdani froze in the headlights, until Trump jumped in and said, "Just say yes," adding that it was easier than explaining it.
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Trump was acknowledging that in the hardball of politics, people throw names at each other, but also, that once the votes are counted, the winners have to work together, no matter if they slung epithets like fascist and communist quite freely.
The meeting was also a reminder that unlike Mamdani, Trump is not an ideologue. He has been a Democrat, in the Reform Party, and the leader of the GOP. For Trump, the question is whether a policy works, not if Edmund Burke or William F. Buckley would approve of it.
Zany Zohran is a sworn socialist, but Trump cannot fully be claimed by any of the wings of the modern conservative movement, all of which curry favor from him.
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For Mamdini’s part, he played the son-in-law very well, lots of smiling, standing deferentially alongside Trump, he was calm and reserved, almost like the 20-something cousins who suddenly decide to "take a walk," a half hour before dinner.
There will be little to no backlash against Mamdani on the left for "humanizing" Trump during his visit, because his acolytes know he was just playing the game, like when former President Barack Obama pretended to oppose gay marriage based on his "deeply held" Christian beliefs.
But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a humanizing moment for Trump, at least for those who don’t already put his picture on dart boards. By foregoing Archie Bunker and channeling Mike Brady, Trump pulled off a "President Knows Best" holiday special.
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While this truce between the soon-to-be hizzoner and the commander-in-chief may not last much longer than Christmas or New Year's -- Trump could still have ICE descend upon Gotham, Mamdani could still try to arrest foreign dignitaries -- for now, the pleasantries are a welcome respite.
"My daughter married a communist, can you believe that, a communist?" you can almost hear Trump saying of his beloved New York City after dinner, unbuckling his belt in his golden recliner. "But that’s okay, we like Zohran."
Perhaps, as we enter the season of Advent next week, this is exactly what Americans needed to see: two men who could not be more polar opposites in the political imagination of their nation, nonetheless treating each other with dignity and respect.
And somewhere, I could almost sense First Lady Melania Trump, mirroring so many mothers and grandmothers this Turkey Day, whispering "Thank God," when the fireworks never started, and the family made nice all the way through the pumpkin pie.
