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By Newsweek StaffShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberPresident Donald Trump invited New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the White House on Friday. CW looks at the winners and losers.
Donald Trump ⬆
The president was at his charming and affable best. Trump created the social media clip of the weekend by patting Mamdani on the arm and encouraging him to call the president a fascist.
Zohran Mamdani ⬅➡
Held his own with the commander in chief in the Oval Office. But didn’t win the charm contest. And was pilloried by some socialists for getting along with the “dictator.”
Jack Posobiec ⬆
The conservative influencer was in the White House press corps and asked Mamdani the toughest questions of the day: does he intend to tax white neighborhoods more than non-white ones? Mamdani fudged the answer and Posobiec got a second moment of glory when Fox News put him on air to discuss it.
World Socialist Web Site ⬇
They were already furious with Mamdani for keeping NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in place. The convivial meeting with Trump was just too much to handle.
House GOP ⬇
Eighty-six Democrats, many in swing districts, joined the GOP in voting for a resolution condemning socialism before the Mamdani-Trump meeting. The GOP had a chance to tie Mamdani to every Democrat in the midterms. Now they’ve let 86 of them off the hook.
New York City ⬆
The two most famous and polarizing New Yorkers alive met and appeared to get along. What’s not be relieved about?
Originally a staple of Newsweek's print edition, Conventional Wisdom used arrows to track whose stock was rising or falling in the political circus. We're reviving it in the digital age because the problem it lampooned—hyperbole and partisan certainty masquerading as insight—has only intensified.
CW assigns arrows—up, down, or sideways—to the figures and forces shaping current events. The arrows don't predict the future or claim special insight. They capture the prevailing winds of the moment, uncluttered by tribal howling. In an era when partisan media reinforces rather than questions assumptions, CW operates from the center—skeptical of left and right alike, committed to puncturing inflated reputations and recognizing overlooked truths.
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