President Donald Trump established a clear upper hand in his Oval Office meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, while positioning himself to work with the incoming mayor while also protecting federal and state interests, New York State Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz told Newsmax on Saturday.
"Any executive in a place like President Trump needs to understand his enemy," Blumencranz, a Republican serving with Mamdani in the state Assembly, said on Newsmax's "The Count."
"[Trump] needs to know who the individual is that he has to be working with and at points working against," he added. "He will have to hold the purse strings, and he needs to operate."
Meanwhile, Blumencranz pointed to the mayor-elect’s public shift in tone since the election, saying he is seeing "someone who is trying to govern versus someone who is trying to do what socialists do best: to whine, to complain, to try and block traffic instead of actually govern."
He said Trump used the meeting to set expectations, particularly through the optics of the Oval Office.
"This is the art of the deal at its best," Blumencranz said. "This is the president doing what you need to do to get what you need."
Trump, still, is being "very tactful right now," he added, "He has him right where he ... When you have someone that is fundamentally in opposition to American values, fundamentally in opposition to the president and his agenda… he is being very tactful right now. He has him right where he needs him."
Trump is also focused on keeping New Yorkers safe and maintaining strong law enforcement support, the lawmaker said.
"He wants to make sure that ICE and our law enforcement agents are safe in the city of New York," said Blumencranz. "He wants to make sure the people of New York are safe."
Trump’s approach reflects a practical understanding of how to advance policy in a politically divided environment, he added.
He noted Mamdani has already begun moderating some of his earlier campaign rhetoric. "This man is a liar," Blumencranz said. "He is lying about what he can do, he's lying about what he wants to do, and he's lying about what the reality on the ground looks like in his operations and his powers as the mayor."
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s agenda will be constrained by federal and state authority," he stressed.
"Either Zohran needs to step in line and walk back his comments or he is going to create a fight that he cannot win,” he said.
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