Trump-Mamdani Bromance

Trump-Mamdani Bromance

Opposites Attract

Jim Kavanagh

The Trump-Mamdani meeting in the Oval Office blew everyone’s mind. Without renouncing the “communist” and “fascist” epithets they’ve thrown at each other—indeed, with Trump good-naturedly accepting his—they had a very friendly exchange.

Islamophobic, anti-communist rightists like Laura Loomer found it “Wild to allow a jihadist communist to stand behind the President’s desk in the Oval Office."  Indeed, it drove Laura to drink—ginger ale, that is: “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 it didn’t quite go as the rightists expected:

The Israelis also found it confusing:

Of the jihadist communist, Trump said “I feel very confident that he can do a very good job…And we're gonna be helping him, to make everybody's dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York."

Despite Zohran’s sticking to his “fascist” and “genocide” guns, leftists  found his cozying up to the fascist genocidaire billionaire hard to swallow (even with ginger ale), and found most apt Trump’s remark that "I will say there's no difference in party. There's no difference in anything.” Political theater of the capitalist and imperialist duopoly.

Centrists found it a “vision” of new political possibility::

Though somebody has to explain to me how this works. Are the young well-to-do guy and the old billionaire both on the “bottom”? Where’s the “top”? Is Trump engaging in a class-warfare solidarity fest or another kind of buddy hug? We’ll come to that.

End of day, something was going on here that couldn’t be captured by the normal political categories, and left most people frankly bewildered:

I do, of course, think it’s duopoly political theater. And Mamdani is very good at it. I don’t fault him for talking, while avoiding fighting, with Trump. He’s the mayor of a major city that depends on good relations with the federal government. He’s structurally forced to “collaborate” with Trump. If he can get assurances of federal aid, and “the prospect that the National Guard would be deployed to the city in the coming months seemed less likely,” while maintaining his positions on “genocide” and “fascism,”  even if he has to take credit for keeping an uber-Zionist, Trump family friend police commissioner, et. al.—well, that’s the game he’s chosen to play, and, as I discussed in my previous essay, we are quickly learning what to expect about how Mamdani will play it.

What was most surprising in this episode was Trump’s attitude.  To be sure, it was theater, and no matter what he said in the moment, we can have no confidence about what Trump is actually going to do with New York under Mamdani, off-stage. But his intensely positive attitude toward Zohran in the moment, exhibited in words, facial expressions, and body language, was genuine. Look at those pictures. I hope you have someone in your life who looks at you that way. Donald Trump is not a good actor.

The scene with Mamdani certainly had strong vibes that can’t be captured in political categories. I've noticed those vibes with Trump before. Here's what I wrote about Trump's meeting with Emmanuel Macron in 2017:

In a recent irruption of his self-sabotaging panglossia, Trump has given a bizarre interview to the New York Times in which, among other gems.., in a series of blurts that I find particularly bizarre and telling, he repeatedly emphasized that French President Emmanuel Macron is a “strong” guy who “loves holding my hand… people don’t realize he loves holding my hand...He’s a very good person. And a tough guy…but he does love holding my hand.” As the man with the cigar might say, textbook symptomatic utterance.  (It's such a feeling...I can't hide. I can't hide. I can't hide.)

These are all signs of Trump's complete ignorance regarding policy fundamentals as well as his overwhelming narcissism. It's quite a bonus that it comes so obviously tinged with a familiar “bromantic”—i.e., per cigar-man, homo-erotic—attraction for strong men who (he imagines) give him the love he so desperately needs. There are charming versions of that in the playfulness of the locker room or at the chessboard, but it's somewhat more disturbing as a central, unrecognized obsession of the pussy-grabbing leader of the most powerful country in the world, whose discourse seems to whirl around a black hole of narcissism and need. It makes for a hollow and dangerous man.

Trump loves a winner. Seems to really love a handsome, dark-haired, strong-handed winner who treats him well. I think political opponents Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani will have much to wrestle about in the coming years, and I, for one, am looking forward to watching it.

______________________