Trump didn't embrace Mamdani, he just did his usual when having a summit meeting with a political adversary, if he feels it will give him negotiating leverage in that particular situation.

He was nice to them. He lavished praise on them.

When you are negotiating with someone who made their political bones by aggressively targeting you and making you the bad guy, it kind of make sense to try to completely defuse it by...being nice to them.

Now Trump can do anything Trump feels is appropriate in terms of substantive policy re: NYC and it will be impossible for the ProGlibs, the MSM, or Mamdani himself to claim that Trump was motivated by personal animosity towards Mamdani.

I'm not claiming that Trump is consistent with this type of thing, because obviously he's not. The unpredictability and flip-flopping on a dime is part and parcel of his game plan.

Several recent examples: The flip flop on Epstein files; pulling back on the tariffs (which he will obviously continue to change based on how the economy is doing leading up to next year's elections); advocating for eliminating the filibuster (going against Thune's position) during the shutdown.

Another example--he was going to send National Guard to San Franciso. But the mayor of San Francisco was more cooperative with Trump and fighting crime so Trump didn't do that.

The idiots running places like L.A. and Chicago aren't doing what's in the best interests of their cities. They are fighting with Trump for purely political reasons, regardless of whether that's beneficial to their cities.