US President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speak to reporters during a press conference following their meeting at Gracie Mansion in New York City, US, September 21, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Andrew Hoffstetter
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer joined MAGA diehards with a profane eruption after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) coaxed President Donald Trump into joining his news conference and praising him.
Loomer vented to POLITICO's Playbook newsletter, which reported Tuesday on the anger inside Trump's coalition. Monday's meeting was at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.
The meeting came six weeks before an election Republicans have cast as a referendum on socialism and communism, Playbook reported. Party members had hoped to turn Mamdani, a democratic socialist, into the villain of that campaign, the outlet reported.
Mamdani asked Trump "on the spot" to join him when the mayor's turn to brief reporters arrived, and the president agreed, Playbook reported, citing a person familiar with the meeting.
"I want him to be a great mayor, and he certainly got potential. Got great potential," Trump said on the Gracie Mansion lawn.
Mamdani then called on MS NOW, CNN and POLITICO, the three outlets Trump barred from the White House last week, according to Playbook.
Trump has asked supporters to treat the midterms as a verdict on him, telling the Republican National Committee's first midterm convention in Dallas on Sept. 9 to "pretend that I am on the ballot," NBC News reported.
"It's total b—. I'm pi--ed off," Loomer told Playbook after the meeting.
"He's telling voters to pretend that he's on the ballot while, at the same time, saying that this communist jihadist has potential," she said. "How does that motivate people to go out and vote in the midterms when Mamdani and everyone he has endorsed is anti-Trump and anti-American?"
"I am a die hard Trump supporter and today I am feeling demoralized because Mamdani is a full blown communist jihadist," Loomer wrote on X.
"The base is very angry today," she added in the same Monday night post.
Over 12 hours later, Loomer was still fuming.
"It's deeply upsetting and brushing that aside is a huge mistake, especially before the midterms," she wrote Tuesday morning.
"It's just another in a string of examples where Trump's message and Republicans' don't jibe," Arizona-based Republican strategist Barrett Marson told Playbook. "The in-your-face arguments from Republicans this election cycle is that Democrats want to bring socialism or communism to America."
On Thursday, Trump plans to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a White House state dinner.
"Trump warmly embracing two of the most outspoken leaders of those ideologies makes it that much harder for the message to resonate with voters," Marson said.
"I thought it was a big mistake for the president, whom I almost always support," former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey said on Newsmax.