USA – After the meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani told reporters alongside Trump that New Yorkers are opposed to American tax dollars being used to fund endless wars while ignoring the cost-of-living crisis back at home.

“When I spoke to New Yorkers who had voted for the president last November on Hillside Avenue and Fordham Road, I asked them why? I heard again and again two major reasons. One was that they wanted an end to forever wars … and they wanted to address the cost-of-living crisis,” Mamdani told reporters.

When asked about his remarks about US complicity in Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, Mamdani said: “I’ve spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide, and I’ve spoken about our government funding it.”

He added that many New Yorkers want their tax dollars “to go towards the benefit of New Yorkers and their ability to afford basic dignity.”

Highlighting the city’s deepening social challenges, Mamdani noted that New York is in “the ninth consecutive year of more than 100,000 school children being homeless,” adding: “Here’s a desperate need, not only for the following of human rights, but also the following through on the promises we’ve made. New Yorkers.”

The mayor-elect said many Trump voters he met, including a pharmacist in Jamaica, Queens, expressed fatigue about US military engagements abroad.

“People were tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars,” he said, “I also believe that we have to follow through on the international human rights, and I know that still today, those are being violated.”

Calling his meeting with Trump “productive,” Mamdani added: “I appreciated the meeting with the president, as he said, it was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, New York City.”

“We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities. We spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out,” he added.

Mamdani, 34, became the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the nation’s largest city after defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa earlier this month, running on a progressive platform centered on affordability and expanded social services.

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked the democratic socialist as a “communist” and threatened to cut federal funding to New York if Mamdani won.

The two men, however, had a warm meeting at the Oval Office, which they described as “productive,” with Trump saying, “The better he does, the happier I am.”