The national Republican party is doubling down on its strategy of tying socialist New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to Democrats in midterm elections following President Donald Trump’s friendly Oval Office meeting with him, The Daily Signal has learned.

The National Republican Congressional Committee issued a memo shortly before Mamdani’s win detailing the party’s plan to “weaponize” Mamdani against Democrats. But on Friday, Trump came away from his meeting with Mamdani saying he is “very confident” the socialist can do a “very good job” in New York City.

Through Trump previously threatened to pull federal funding from New York if Mamdani won, he said, “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him.”

However, a GOP campaign strategist said Republicans still plan to hold Mamdani’s feet to the fire.

“We’re still going to attack him, especially when he gets into office,” the campaign strategist said. “He has all of these extreme radicals he’s surrounding himself with. He’s going to be incredibly incompetent, so we plan on definitely making Democrats answer for that.”

The source said Trump looked strong and gracious in the Oval Office meeting, and it was clear Mamdani knows he needs a relationship with Trump. The mayor-elect presented himself as someone that could work with Trump, but the Republican party is ready to “fire away” on Mamdani when he begins his term and starts being “incompetent” and a “radical extremist.”

“Trump can be gracious to many people, but going forward, the minute that he tries to implement communist policies, Republicans on all sides are going to make sure that we hold him accountable for that,” the strategist said, “and we hold all Democrats accountable for that.”

Trump’s change of tune with Mamdani will spark “no changes” to the GOP’s midterm strategy, another national Republican strategist told The Daily Signal.

Trump kicked off a smart strategy of starting his relationship with Mamdani with a bipartisan push to make New York safer and more affordable. Mamdani recognized that the president loves New York and would like to be friends with the new mayor and charmed him, the strategist said.

But it won’t take long for the country to see how ineffective and dangerous Mamdani’s policies are, and the GOP will be quick to push back on socialism and tie Mamdani to other Democrat candidates.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who is challenging Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in midterms, has pressed hard on her opponent’s connection to socialist Mamdani.

A reporter asked Trump if he agreed with Stefanik’s claim that Mamdani is a jihadist.

“No I don’t,” Trump responded. “You say things sometimes in a campaign,” Trump said of Stefanik. “She’s a very capable person.”

Stefanik doesn’t think Mamdani and Trump’s love fest complicates her messaging, she said in a a local news interview.

“I strongly believe that Zohran Mamdani is catastrophic for the people of New York City and really for the people of New York State, particularly when you consider the fact that New York City and the greater New York City region is home to more Jewish families than any other part of the world outside of Israel,” she said.

“You have Zohran Mamdani, who is a defund-the-police, tax-hiking socialist who has campaigned with an unindicted co-conspirator of terrorist attacks, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed New Yorkers,” she continued. “So, I stand by my statement: He is a jihadist, and this is an area where President Trump and I disagree.”

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