New York's incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, after an exchange of barbs that has seized national attention.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old political insurgent who came from nowhere to win leadership of America's biggest city, said Thursday he was "ready for whatever happens."

Sparks could fly when the self-declared Democratic Socialist comes face-to-face with the 79-year-old Republican.

Trump brands Mamdani a "communist" and has suggested the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported.

"It speaks volumes that (Friday) we have a communist coming to the White House," Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.

Both men are from the Queens area of New York City and both have a talent for political messaging, b

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