Only Humans Can Befriend Their Prey

Only Humans Can Befriend Their Prey

By little-bro’ing his supposed opponent, Trump robbed Mamdani of his chance to play the Macduff to his Macbeth.

Sascha Seinfeld

Dec 03, 2025

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President Trump and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani arrived at their

Oval Office meeting last Friday

having cast each other as sworn enemies. Trump had labeled Mamdani a

“100% Communist Lunatic”

and

“a total nut job.”

Mamdani billed himself as

“Trump’s worst nightmare.”

It was shaping up to be a fight to the death in the Colosseum.

But as we continue to learn, un-learn, and re-learn with Trump: you can’t play the playa, and you can’t outdo the doer. The horseshoe effect is so undefeated these days that ideological opposites practically snap toward each other like magnets.

Trump didn’t fight Zohran Mamdani—he disarmed him. Literally. Instead of a clash, Trump welcomed Mamdani like a prodigal son crawling back for a warm embrace. “He really ran an incredible race… And I congratulated him,”

he told reporters

, noting their shared love of New York and insisting, “The better he does, the happier I am.” He even coached Mamdani through tough press questions (“That was good”) and jumped in to defend him (“I’ll stick up for you here”). Trump didn’t punch—he patted Mamdani on the back so hard it nearly knocked the wind out of him.

Tactically, it’s brilliant. If Trump refuses to play the villain, Mamdani can’t build momentum as the adversary—blunting his deviationist edge. Trump sees it too: “I think he’s different. All right? I think he’s different. And that can be in a very positive way.”

At some point in the past year, Trump discovered something more potent than hostility: hospitality. But this isn’t pure encouragement—it’s containment. Perhaps he learned it watching one Democrat try the opposite and flop. Andrew Cuomo spent the mayoral race belittling Mamdani—rage-baiting,

inciting panic

—as if outrage would shrink him into obscurity. But attacking only exposed Cuomo’s own weakness. While Cuomo’s fury looked like fear, Trump’s embrace looked like ownership.

To Mamdani’s credit, he didn’t melt into a quivering fanboy beside Donny Pardon. If his heart rate spiked, it didn’t show. He kept his posture and accepted support only when it translated into policy—pressing his commitments on affordability, rent, housing, and public safety. He called the meeting “a productive one focused on shared admiration and love… which is New York City,” noting that he “appreciated the time with the President.” Neither man surrendered; both declined the roles they were cast to play.

Even more compelling: they share an essential trait—they’re both personality hires. Charismatic populists who cultivate power through warmth, performance, accessibility, and directness. Their charm is their machinery. So their mutual irresistibility can’t help but bleed into each other. Good energy always escapes—like a plume of smoke wafting out from under a pothole and merging into a cloud.

Crucially, both know how to look an opponent in the eye without flinching. They don’t avoid disagreement; they greet it like the pint of beer they ordered twenty minutes ago. Like in early October, when

Mamdani went on Fox News

—offsides territory—and said, “I want to take this moment… and speak directly to the president.” Trump almost certainly heard him loud and clear, exactly as it was intended.

Historically, Trump cultivated power as an

ALL-CAPS artillery tank

. But Fun-Uncle Trump, in his

Remind me what we were fighting about again?

era, has shifted into diplomacy-by-embrace. Maybe he’s realizing his ultimate power—derived from his bountiful well of no-fucks-given—lies in his

fragrance-misting

,

YMCA-dancing

, nuggie-giving,

iPad DJ

energy.

In 2025 alone, he called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

“an incredible man,”

basked in

Qatari hospitality

with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and welcomed Syria’s once-sanctioned president Ahmed al-Sharaa to the White House,

promising

, “We’ll do everything we can to make Syria successful.” He’s not avoiding adversaries; he’s absorbing them. He wants to be besties with everyone.

Mamdani’s counter-strategy mirrors this from a different angle: don’t retreat, take whatever collaboration yields, and refuse to be used as a prop. Both men move toward conflict, not away from it, denying the other the satisfaction of resentment. Instead of war, they’ve forged a stalemate of coexistence—an oddly inspiring image of two figures who could not be farther apart politically, ideologically, or culturally.

When it comes to people we disagree with, I’ve heard some say, “I don’t

hate

them, I just don’t want to be around them.” But avoiding complicated people gives everyone else license to exclude us by the same logic.

Yes, it’s hard to look someone in the eye whose politics you believe could harm you. But beliefs aren’t behaviors. And if we were a little more charming, self-deprecating, and boisterous, maybe we’d stand a chance at real argument. If conflict follows, fine. As we see here, “having it out” tends to release the pressure—once cracked, the tension floats away like dust in sunlight.

Rather than amplifying our biggest threats by refusing to share a room, we can extinguish them by saying, “I’ll be cheering for him,” as Trump did. Even if none of us mean it.

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