(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met in the Oval Office Friday discussing topics around affordability and safety in New York City, appearing cordial despite trading barbs for months.

“I just want to congratulate. I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor and the better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything. And we’re going to be helping him, to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York and congratulations, Mr. Mayor,” Trump said.

“It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

In the days leading up to their first face-to-face meeting, the two New Yorkers told the press they are looking forward to working together to help the Big Apple, especially when it came to affordability. Trump and Mamdani appeared cordial and shook hands after the 25 minute closed door talk and said they agreed on a lot.

“I’m not concerned about this meeting. I view this meeting as an opportunity for me to make my case,” Mamdani told reporters Thursday at a news conference.

Trump announced the meeting on Wednesday night on social media, repeating the “communist” label he’s been using against Mamdani, who is a member of the Democratic Socialist group, and putting his middle name, Kwame, in quotes.

In a radio interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade out Friday before the meeting, Trump said he believes the meeting will go well and that he came after Mamdani a little too hard during the election cycle.

“He’s got a different philosophy. He’s a little bit different. I give him a lot of credit for the run. They did a successful run, and we all know that runs are not easy, but I think we’ll get along fine,” Trump said. “Look, we’re looking for the same thing. We want to make New York strong, and you know, there’s such a different philosophy”

Ahead of the meeting, Robert Wolf, a former UBS executive who is close with former President Barack Obama, said on X that he had a Zoom call with Mamdani Thursday “discussing recent economic news and his upcoming meeting with President Trump.”

Mamdani has been a vocal critic of the administration over its policies, including increased deportations, cuts to government agencies and attacks on cities run by Democrats.

On election night, the 34-year-old mayor-elect spoke directly to Trump in his acceptance speech and told him to “turn the volume up,” as he vowed to protect immigrants.

“So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us,” he said.

When asked about the election night comments during his radio interview.

“I don’t know exactly what he means by turn the volume up, because turn the volume up. He has to be careful when he says that to me,” Trump said.

Since Mamdani won the June Democratic primary, Trump has spoken out against the state assemblyman, at one point threatening to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, moved to New York as a child, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018.

“We’re going to be watching that very carefully. And a lot of people are saying, he’s here illegally,” Trump claimed with no evidence in July.

The president has also threatened to withhold federal funding to New York if Mamdani won the election.

Mamdani’s critics have raised skepticism about his proposals, calling them far-fetched and improbable, as some would require state approval. He has also come under fire for his past comments criticizing the NYPD and Israeli government actions in the Gaza conflict.

The mayor-elect has apologized for his comments against the department and vowed to fight for Jewish New Yorkers, while still being critical of the Israeli government’s polices during the conflict.

Mamdani has also repeatedly brushed aside the threats and said he will continue to speak out against the administration’s conservative policies.

“His threats are inevitable,” Mamdani told ABC News a day after the election. “This has nothing to do with safety, it has to do with intimidation.”

At the same time, Mamdani has said he was open to talking with Trump, especially when it comes to affordability issues, noting that Trump won his re-election promising to bring down rising prices.

“I have many disagreements with the president. I intend to make it clear that I will work with him,” Mamdani said Thursday.

The mayor-elect won the election on a campaign to help New Yorkers with costs, with proposals such as raising the income tax on New Yorkers who earn over a million dollars a year, providing free child care to parents with kids as early as six weeks old, and free public buses.

Following Mamdani’s victory and other key wins by Democrats, Trump has said in social media posts and news conferences that he and the Republicans are the party working to lower costs.

 “We’re fighting for an economy where everyone can win, from the cashier starting first job to a franchisee opening his first location to the young family in a drive through line,” he told a crowd in Pennsylvania on Monday.

-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Tonya Simpson contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Several Democrats accused by President Donald Trump of “seditious behavior” defended their message to military members that they can refuse illegal order. The president and administration officials suggested the action could be punishable by law.

The video featuring six Democrats who served in the military or in the intelligence community set off more than a dozen social media posts by Trump, who called them “traitors” and said their action could be “punishable by death.”

“I think it’s important to say that there is nothing more American than standing up for the Constitution, that’s what we were doing. President didn’t like it, so now he calls for us to be hanged,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” on Thursday night.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, on MS NOW, said the message to military members was “chapter and verse” from the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

“I think his reaction is just characteristic of a political system that no one is proud of right now,” she said.

The president, appearing on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Friday, continued to lash out at the lawmakers.

“These are bad people. These are people that, in my opinion, broke the law. Now, what happens to them? I can’t tell you, but they broke the law,” Trump said.

But after some bipartisan backlash to his comments about the death penalty, Trump softened somewhat.

“I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death … That was seditious behavior, that was a big deal. You know, nothing’s a big deal, today’s a different world,” he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday was forced to clarify to reporters on Thursday that “no,” Trump does not want to execute members of Congress.

But Leavitt called the video by Democrats “dangerous,” and falsely characterized Democrats of encouraging military members “to defy the president’s lawful orders.”

“It perhaps is punishable by law. I’m not a lawyer. I’ll leave that to the Department of Justice and the Department of War to decide,” Leavitt said.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an appearance on “Hannity” on Fox News on Wednesday, said he wanted to know why the lawmakers released the video.

“What is the reason that they all went on a video and encouraged young men and women to defy court orders without even giving a hint of what’s illegal, without even giving any suggestion of what law or what order they’re being asked to violate. You cannot do that in this country, especially if you’re a leader,” Blanche said.

“So what does the investigation look like? I think they should be held to account. I think that those congressmen should be required to answer questions and to answer questions about why they did what they did. And the American people deserve that, and so does President Trump,” he added.

When pressed if an investigation was underway, the deputy attorney general responded: “Look, we don’t, Sean, you know we don’t talk about investigations.”

In the video, which was released on Tuesday, none of the Democrats mentioned any specific illegal orders given to service members. It’s not clear whether service members have been asked to break the law.

Both Kelly and Slotkin, when asked why they felt the need to share the video message, pointed to recent administration actions that have raised legal challenges, including lethal strikes against alleged drug boats in Latin America and the deployment of National Guard troops in U.S. cities.

“He has talked about sending troops into more U.S. cities, he’s talked about invoking the Insurrection Act,” Kelly told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

“All of us had been getting outrage from folks in uniform, folks in the intelligence community saying like, ‘Hey, we’re really concerned,'” Slotkin said on MS NOW. “‘You know, I’m being deployed to a city or, you know, inside the United States, or I’m being asked to conduct strikes in the Mediterranean. And I don’t understand … like how this is legal?'”

Slotkin corrected that she meant strikes in the Caribbean Sea, where dozens of people have been killed in strikes the administration says is part of its “war” against drug cartels in the region.

The administration has defended the legality of the boat strikes and the use of National Guard troops in American cities, including Washington and Los Angeles.

“They’re suggesting … that the president has given illegal orders, which he has not. Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander in chief and through this chain of command, through the secretary of war, is lawful,” Leavitt said on Thursday.

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(WASHINGTON) — As of Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government will be added to the U.S. State Department’s list of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organizations.

Declaring Maduro the head of a foreign terrorist organization — instead of a corrupt dictatorial regime, as the U.S. government has regarded him for years — is an unprecedented move that President Donald Trump insists gives him the authority to strike inside Venezuela, as some outside experts question his rationale.

What happens next is far from clear, in part because Trump hasn’t said what he wants to happen. When asked by a reporter at an Oval Office press conference on Nov. 17 what Maduro could do to placate the U.S., Trump called it a “tricky” question.

But some experts said that forcing Maduro from power without a long-term plan could leave a power vacuum, potentially giving way to violence and chaos.

“Any post-Maduro government will live or die based on the amount of security cooperation the United States is willing to provide,” said Henry Ziemer, an associate fellow with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News.

Here are three things to know about what could happen next:

Trump could use military strikes inside Venezuela and force Maduro to flee.

After weeks of lethal military strikes on suspected drug vessels, the State Department this week told Congress that Maduro wasn’t just a foreign leader but the head of “Cartel de los Soles.”

Experts told ABC News the term, which translates to “Cartel of the Suns,” is a general reference to corrupt Venezuelan officials, including those involved in the drug trade. The Cartel de los Soles has not been listed on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment or in the United Nation’s World Drug Report.

The designation becomes official on Monday following a seven-day notice period to lawmakers, putting Maduro on the same list as terror networks like al-Qaida and the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. Maduro denies the allegation, instead calling for diplomacy.

Trump suggested the label gives him the authority to launch strikes, although legal experts told ABC News that claim is dubious. According to the Congressional Research Service, the list primarily serves “the purpose of imposing financial sanctions, immigration restrictions, or other penalties in pursuit of law enforcement or national security goals.”

In an interview with the right-wing One America News Network, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth insisted the decision was about giving the president greater military options.

“Nothing’s off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table,” he said.

Maduro could placate Trump, but there’s no clear path for that.

While labeling Maduro a terrorist leader, Trump also said he’s open to negotiations. But when asked if Maduro could do anything to get Trump to back down, the president wasn’t clear.

“You know, the question’s a little bit tricky,” Trump said Nov. 17 in the Oval Office. “I don’t think it was meant to be tricky. It’s just that, look, he’s done tremendous damage of our country, primarily because of drugs,” and “the release of prisoners into our country has been a disaster.”

Some U.N. officials and regional experts said that Venezuela facilitates and profits off the drug trade, but that drug smuggling routes in the Caribbean are primarily headed for Europe. The majority of drugs coming into the U.S. enter through Mexico and legal ports of entry, they say.

Maduro has denied profiting from the drug trade.

Some independent experts also said Trump’s claim that Venezuela is emptying its prisons and sending people with mental illnesses to the U.S. is not supported by evidence. According to the Migration Policy Institute, some 770,000 Venezuelan immigrants live in the United States — the vast majority arriving after fleeing Maduro’s authoritarian regime and the ongoing economic crisis there.

Trump’s endgame makes more sense when you consider the bigger picture, some conservatives say. The U.S. has long seen Maduro as a source of chaos and instability in the region, but has not been willing to try to force a change.

“I think what we’re doing sends a message to leaders across the hemisphere about the U.S. being very serious about protecting the American people against these narco threats and the weaponization of these illicit activities and criminal activities,” Andres Martinez-Fernandez, senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security, told ABC News.

“I do think you’re starting to see. … other governments in the region that are more forward-leaning and more aligned with the United States,” he said.

US strikes could trigger chaos inside Venezuela, experts warn.

David Smolansky, who is deputy director of international affairs for the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, told ABC News that the opposition, which is in exile, is ready to “provide Venezuelans an orderly and democratic transition.”

“What we are focused on is to be ready when the transition begins,” he said, citing the 2024 election of Edmundo Gonzalez with 67% of the vote. “We’ve been ready for a while.”

A new Venezuelan government, though, would inherit serious immediate challenges. Analysts said a new government would need security, help in reforming Venezuela’s armed forces and intelligence support from the U.S.

Zeimer said one major challenge would be convincing people throughout the Venezuelan government that they will be safe without Maduro. And part of their calculation will be how successful a new regime could be.

“Maduro is nothing if not wily and adaptable,” Zeimer said. “He’s been able, time after time, to get the United States to negotiate, and use negotiations, basically as a way to release the pressure and commit to things that he has no plans on following through with and hang on to power.”

“I think he is still definitely trying to do that,” he added. “It is telling that he’s yet to flee.”

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