US President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani had a civil meeting in the White House. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, two bitter rivals who clashed bitterly in public for months over their sharp political differences, came face-to-face for a high-stakes meeting at the White House, their first direct interaction since Mamdani created history in the New York mayoral polls.

Months of name-calling and fiery exchanges had sparked concerns of a tense standoff. With Trump calling Mamdani a “communist" and “lunatic", and the Mayor-elect calling him “fascist" and a “despot", people were bracing to see sparks fly at the Oval Office, similar to what happened with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year.

However, the m

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