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Wu not interested in ‘bromance’ with Trump, she says after Mamdani’s White House trip
Heading into her second term, Mayor Michelle Wu is not backing down from her antagonism of the Trump administration.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said this week that she has no interest in a friendly meet-up with President Donald Trump, unlike New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani, the young Democratic Socialist who shocked the political world this year, dominated headlines on Friday after meeting with Trump in the White House. Despite the fact that Mamdani railed against Trump on the campaign trail, the president showed surprising warmness toward Mamdani in a joint press conference in the Oval Office after their meeting.
Wu was asked if she would be open to a similar type of meeting with Trump during a turkey distribution event in Jamaica Plain Monday. She offered a blunt response.
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“I’m not interested in a bromance with the federal regime,” Wu said, per The Boston Globe.
Wu’s disdain for the Trump administration is nothing new. In the spring, Wu’s strong performance during a hearing in front of many Trump-friendly GOP lawmakers in Washington amplified her national profile. Federal officials continued to antagonize her over the city’s immigration enforcement policies throughout the year, allowing Wu to take a defiant stance that played well in a city that largely dislikes the president.
She cruised through a reelection campaign and secured a second term, during which there will undoubtedly be plenty more opportunities for resistance. The Wu administration is amid a continuous effort to obtain information about ICE activity, and is facing a lawsuit from the Trump administration challenging the legality of a local law that limits how Boston police can assist ICE. State Attorney General Andrea Campbell got involved in that case this week. ICE has ramped up enforcement activities in Boston this year, most recently drawing ire from Wu and residents over the raid of a car wash in Allston.
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Mamdani and Wu are both young progressives tasked with leading major cities in an era when the Democratic Party is looking for new leaders. After her big 2025, Wu is increasingly being held up as a model for Democratic governance nationwide. Mamdani is on record as being a big fan of Wu, calling her the most effective Democrat in the country during a debate earlier this year. She offered praise after Mamdani’s electoral victories this year, and the two have had brief phone conversations.
Mamdani’s campaign was based heavily on a few core progressive policies, and he will have to show voters that he is aggressively working toward them once he takes office in January. New York City could have a larger target on its back than Boston, and a protracted fight with the Trump administration would derail Mamdani’s momentum and potentially cause fissures in his support.
During their surprisingly cordial meeting, Mamdani and Trump largely sidestepped talk about immigration and other hot-button issues. Antagonism between the two could ramp up again at any moment, but for now Mamdani is enjoying general praise for seemingly delaying actions like Trump sending the National Guard to New York City.
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Wu has a different calculus in mind.
“From my point of view, flattery is not the way,” she said, according to the Globe. “I think Boston residents want to stand strong on our values and to get things done and to keep moving forward, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Wu did not directly attack Mamdani, and was clear that every leader and community must make their own decisions in deciding how to navigate a tense political moment.
Wu is open to meeting the president, but only if his administration makes major changes, she said.
“If it came with a promise to stop snatching residents illegally off the streets, stop prosecuting his political enemies, stop cutting life-saving research and funding?” she said. “Sure, I would be open to a conversation at that point.”
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