The face-to-face meeting between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made global headlines Friday—but not for the reasons anyone might have anticipated. The Oval Office press conference with the pair was “surprisingly cordial,” says the BBC . Trump “offered nothing but praise,” reports NBC .

Sure, we know Mamdani is charming , but so is Barack Obama , another leader Trump has spent friendly-seeming time with , even as he falsely accuses Obama of treason. So it's got to be more than Mamdani's charisma. Here, we offer up five theories to explain what Vanity Fair 's Aidan McLaughlin described as a “lovefest.”

“Don't let Pete Hegseth see you in that thing.” JIM WATSON/Getty Images Trump is powerless in the presence of a beard

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