By Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — As he celebrated a decisive victory earlier this month, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made a direct appeal to President Donald Trump: “Since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: turn the volume up!”

The two leaders will hear each other loud and clear when they come face-to-face at the White House on Friday for their first meeting, which the mayor-elect has said he requested.

And while it will offer an opportunity to try to forge a working relationship between the federal government and the new leader of the country’s most populous city, political tensions loom large.

“It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House, because that’s who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday.

She was repeating the president’s frequent line of attack during the campaign, when Trump urged voters in his native city to back Democratic former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, over the GOP nominee. (Mamdani has said he is not a communist despite the White House’s claims.) Trump had also threatened to halt the city’s federal funding if Mamdani won, and indicated openness to seizing control of the city – which could put the mayor-elect’s agenda at risk.

“For me, it’s not about myself, it’s not about a relationship with an individual. It’s about a relationship between New York City and the White House,” Mamdani told reporters on Thursday previewing the meeting.

Mamdani spent much of Thursday preparing for the meeting, including by holding calls with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss how to approach it and how best to communicate with Trump, according to an aide to Mamdani’s transition team. He also spoke with Robert Wolf, the former CEO of UBS Americas and a known ally of former President Barack Obama, according to Wolf’s post on social media.

The face-to-face between the leader of the MAGA movement and the self-described democratic socialist comes after Mamdani secured a commanding victory — winning more than 50% of the vote — with a focus on working-class issues. His strong performance — coupled with Democratic gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia — has, in part, fueled Trump’s attacks on “affordability” as a Democratic “con job.”

Mamdani on Thursday suggested affordability is at the top of his agenda for Friday’s discussions.

“I view this meeting as an opportunity for me to make my case. And I’ll make that case to anyone, frankly, as we’ve been doing over the course of the campaign, and now as I will be the next mayor of this city, it behooves me to ensure that I leave no stone unturned in looking to make this city more affordable,” he said.

Mamdani has promised action to make public buses free and reduce the cost of living, including by opening government-run grocery stores, freezing the rent for 1 million rent-stabilized tenants in the city, and a plan to create New York City’s first universal childcare program.

According to CNN exit polling, 27% of voters in the mayoral election approved of Trump, compared to 70% who disapproved. And while a majority of voters in the overwhelmingly blue city — 58% — said that Trump was not a factor in their vote, 32% said they cast their ballots to express opposition to the president.

There is, however, crossover in the Venn-Diagram of voters who supported both Trump in 2024 and Mamdani this year: 10% of Trump’s voters voted for Mamdani, according to CNN exit polling.

The city, Leavitt said Thursday, is “becoming much more left than I think this president ever anticipated in his many years of living in New York.”

But she cast the meeting as a reflection of Trump’s willingness to “meet with anyone and talk to anyone.” Asked whether the president could be persuaded to abandon his threat to cut federal funding to New York, she declined to say.

Trump repeated that threat the day after the election, while offering a glimmer of collegiality. “I thought it was a very angry speech, certainly angry toward me. And I think he should be very nice to me. You know, I’m the one that sort of has to approve a lot of things coming to him, so he’s off to a bad start,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier.

“I’m so torn, because I would like to see the new mayor do well, because I love New York. I really love New York,” the president added.

But Mamdani also offers Trump — and his party — a political foil ahead of the 2026 midterms. The soon-to-be lame duck president, who has focused on rivals like former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, could make the mayor-to-be, who takes office January 1, his new boogeyman.

Vice President JD Vance, who may have his own higher political ambitions, has no interest in Friday’s get-together.

“I might have a stomach bug,” he joked at a Thursday Breitbart News event.

Mamdani’s meeting with the president is taking place earlier than usual as he has not yet taken office. New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025 and former Mayor Bill de Blasio met with him inside Trump Tower shortly after Trump was elected the first time in 2016. The meeting between Mamdani and Trump is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.

CNN’s Gloria Pazmino and Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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