President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — from opposite poles of the capitalist two-party shell game — held a press conference together after meeting at the White House Nov. 21. They pledged to collaborate to try to make New York “great again.”
Liberal and conservative pundits alike were confounded when they didn’t yell and scream at each other. They’re consumed by Trump calling Mamdani a “communist” or Mamdani and the middle-class left calling Trump a “fascist.” But real politics reflects the fundamental conflict between the class interests of the ruling capitalist families and working people.
Both Mamdani and Trump won election by presenting themselves as sharply different from most politicians who have dominated their parties, the Democrats and Republicans. For more than 150 years, the U.S. rulers have governed through these two parties, urging workers to hold their nose and choose the “lesser evil.” Today both parties are looked upon with growing disgust by working people.
Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He defeated disgraced Democrat Andrew Cuomo in both the party’s primary and in the mayoral election. Trump backed Cuomo at the last minute, hoping to try to stop the DSA member who he erroneously called a “communist” from winning.
Mamdani campaigned on “affordability.” But his proposals —free bus rides, more child care and a handful of government-run supermarkets — pose no serious road forward in the face of the deep economic and social crisis hitting the working class today.
Trump, a real estate mogul, also presents himself as a champion of the working class. He scores points by pointing to the liberals’ infatuation with “wokery” and people’s pronouns.
Trump says the problem is “corrupt elites.” Mamdani says it’s the “billionaires.” Neither explain that real politics is found in the clash of the class interests of the ruling capitalists with the needs and aspirations of the working class.
They both called their meeting “productive,” smiling side by side and saying they share common interests in reducing the cost of living, without offering any concrete proposals. Trump lavished praise on Mamdani, pledging his administration would help the new mayor “make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.” Mamdani said, “I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers.”
Reporters tried to stir the two up against each other. One asked Mamdani if he still thought Trump was a “fascist.” When he stammered a little, Trump jumped in, saying, “It’s OK, you can just say it. That’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
Mamdani “seems to be slightly uncomfortable with Trump’s flattery,” the New York Times live news feed noted. A day after the meeting Mamdani said he still believed Trump was a “fascist” and a “despot,” but one he would work with.
This just shows Mamdani has no idea what fascism is. German workers couldn’t “work with” Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, as he smashed the unions to defend capitalist rule, before unleashing the Holocaust.
One reporter asked Trump to explain why he has said Mamdani was a “communist.” “He’s got views that are a little out there,” Trump said, but added, “He’s going to change also. We all change.” He said conservatives would come to like some things he would do.
Both capitalist politicians had decided the best way to come out on top at the meeting was to appear to be the one who was most considerate. Overall, Trump appeared more magnanimous and Mamdani a little out of his element.
Far from offering a road for workers to fight for power and to run society in the interests of the majority, Mamdani had campaigned as a “municipal socialist,” with a program of mild reforms. The goal of Mamdani and those who share his views is to try to patch up the social evils bred by capitalism in order to save capitalist rule. Trump offers different means to achieve the same goal.
Neither offers anything to meet the social catastrophe working people face today nor the escalating capitalist competition worldwide that is driving toward a new world war.
With Mamdani smiling beside him, Trump said they were both committed to “peace” in the Middle East, and touched on his policies to advance the profit-driven interests of the U.S. rulers in the region and in Ukraine.
Trump also used the meeting to claim his administration had gotten prices in the U.S. “way down from last year,” a remark that flies in the face of the reality workers experience every day.
Capitalist crisis facing workers
The government’s own figures show that real wages have declined further this year as prices remain persistently high and the bosses are pressing to hold down wages. More and more workers are putting off starting families they simply can’t support.
The fight to change these conditions is percolating today. Not in a search for reforms within the two-party capitalist setup, but among workers on the shop floor in factories and other work places, and on strike picket lines. It takes place at protests against the administration’s raids and deportations of workers without papers.
Neither Trump’s tariffs on the U.S. bosses’ competitors, nor Mamdani’s narrowly-focused “municipal socialism” will alleviate what workers face today. What’s needed is a sharp break with bosses and their two capitalist parties, and working people building a party of our own.
In the course of today’s working-class struggles, workers begin looking for political answers not just for number one, but to protect and advance the interests of our class, both here and around the world. What’s needed is to build a party capable of leading workers in our tens of millions to fight to replace capitalist rule with workers power.