This is despite having denounced Trump as a fascist on the campaign trail and representing a political coalition that is anathema to MAGA.

Mamdani has nevertheless realized that Trump is, as Margaret Thatcher memorably said of Mikhail Gorbachev, a man with whom he can do business.

Trump is much more of a centrist than most Democrats think or want the country to believe. Former President Barack Obama, driving to put a brave face on being replaced by Trump, put it well back in 2016.

“I don’t think he is ideological,” Obama told reporters after Trump’s shock election win nearly a decade ago. “I think ultimately he’s pragmatic, in that way. And that can serve him well.”

Some of the people in the Republican Party who frustrate Trump the most are strong fiscal conservatives and libertarians who balk at bills he wants to see passed. Trump is trying to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), not Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). He dislikes ideological “grandstanders” at least as much as “RINOs.”

Trump can also be swayed through flattery and ring-kissing. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has remained influential while other like-minded Republicans have been marginalized within the party. If bombs soon start dropping on Iran, it will be the latest sign Graham has played this game better than his intraparty foes.

The business community and many international leaders also realized the futility of opposing Trump at every turn when he returned to the White House last year. They instead have sought to make deals with him where possible.

Most Democrats, however, have not learned this lesson. They are seeking, first and foremost, to defeat Trump at the ballot box. This makes working and sharing credit with him difficult.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who hails from a different wing of the party than Mamdani, but had a long-standing relationship with Trump as a donor, appeared to sense the opening during the president’s first term.

Trump spoke of the promise of meetings with “Chuck and Nancy.” But Trump’s relationship with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was too contentious to make bipartisan deal-making tenable. Soon, the midterm elections beckoned, Democrats won back the majority in the House, and the focus shifted to denying Trump a second term in 2020.

Things have moved even more quickly in Trump’s second, nonconsecutive term. The midterm elections are coming, Democrats are heavily favored, and the term-limited Trump will become a lame duck sometime before 2028.

But if Mamdani can secure the administration’s backing for a major public housing development, some Democrats may wonder whether the Trump years were wasted on the Resistance. Trump could have given them cover with Republicans for any number of legislative compromises. Instead, Democrats have repeatedly pushed him into the arms of the Right, the political faction that has remained most steadfastly supportive of Trump.

The newspaper mockup Mamdani presented in the Oval Office was a direct appeal to Trump’s vanity and self-image as a builder — and it may work.

Trump has abandoned the GOP’s commitment to Paul Ryan-style reforms of Social Security and Medicare. He has moderated the party’s position on abortion, both in theory by diluting the anti-abortion plank of the Republican platform and in practice by dodging fights on the abortifacient mifepristone. 

But Democrats have no incentive to acknowledge such realities because they want to continue to demagogue these issues in election years. They believe they can beat Trump and replace him with a Democrat.

Trump has also shifted the party to the Right on some issues, most notably immigration, and has become extremely right-wing since entering national politics. That has made a more radical and culturally-minded Left unable to cooperate with Trump on most things.

Trump has made Democrats’ refusal to stand and applaud even uncontroversial things a central part of his last two speeches to Congress, including Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

HOW THE TARIFFS RULING COULD COMPLICATE TRUMP’S NEXT SUPREME COURT NOMINATION

Mamdani entered office after making a series of outlandish promises. He may not get the full support of New York Democrats in Albany as he tries to fulfill them. Municipal government is extremely results-oriented. Mamdani needs a productive working relationship with the federal government, even if it is currently headed by a man he called a fascist. 

The New York City mayor no longer has the luxury of too much frivolity or partisanship in his work with Trump. Mamdani’s method may reveal other Democrats’ missed opportunities.