Donald Trump has suggested he will soon meet with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani - despite having previously called him a "communist lunatic" and "total nutjob".
Mr Mamdani scooped the mayoral election earlier this month by vowing to hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for ambitious left-wing policies such as frozen rents, free childcare and free city buses.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, President Trump said: "The mayor [elect] of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us. We’ll work something out."
Mr Mamdani confirmed on Monday his team had been in touch with the White House to "fulfil a commitment I made to New Yorkers over the course of this campaign".
"We are seeing his actions and that of his administration in Washington leading to the exact opposite effect for New Yorkers and I will go to make the case to the President and to anyone, frankly, that these are the kinds of things we need to change if we want to make it easier for New Yorkers and for Americans to afford the day-to-day necessities of their life," he said, according to NBC News.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said no date had yet been set for the meeting.
The proposed meeting comes just weeks after the Mayor-elect's victory speech, in which he wasted no time calling out President Trump.
He told a crowd of supporters following his win on November 4: "Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up!"
Zohran Mamdani confirmed on Monday his team had contacted the White House
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Mr Mamdani made countering the 79-year-old Republican President's actions in New York City - especially on immigration - a centrepiece of his campaign.
"If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him," Mr Mamdani said to supporters.
"And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.
"This is not only how we stop Trump, it's how we stop the next one."
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Zohran Mamdani wasted no time in calling out President Trump in his victory speech following his election win earlier this month
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Prior to the mayoral election, the US President had threatened to possibly withhold billions of dollars in federal funding from New York City if Mr Mamdani, a democratic socialist, was elected.
"If you have a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there," Mr Trump earlier told CBS' 60 Minutes.
Mr Mamdani's decisive victory in the mayoral election over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who ran as an independent, makes him the first Muslim and first person of South Asian heritage to hold the office.
"New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant," he said in his election-night speech.
Mr Mamdani made countering President Trump a centrepiece of his campaign
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"So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us."
Turnout for the New York City mayoral election was the highest since 1969, having reached more than two million, according to the city's Board of Elections.
The surge was driven by a wave of young voters, newcomers to the city, first-time voters and renters, according to NBC News exit polls.
Many of them were galvanised by 34-year-old Mr Mamdani's proposals to lower the cost of living in the most populous US city and perhaps its most expensive.
Despite the youthful cast of his coalition, the Ugandan-born Mayor-elect appealed to a broad spectrum of voters in the city, winning in four out of five boroughs.
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