AP photo President Donald Trump talks after meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office of the White House last week in Washington.

New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump certainly knew how to put on the charm last week in the nation’s capital. During a visit held at the Oval Office, both were stunningly able to find common ground despite publicly stating their grievances against each other in recent months.

Mamdani, who had been referred to by Trump as a “100% Communist Lunatic,” finds himself in a position of great power in the coming weeks. In overseeing the nation’s largest city — and the world’s financial capital — the new mayor has the ability to greatly impact the future direction of the metropolis.

That has some economists worried.

Mamdani’s list of policies have a more than tint of socialism. They include: no-cost childcare, city-owned grocery stores, building affordable housing, freezing rents and cracking down on bad landlords. In addition, he wants to raise the minimum wage to $30 by 2030.

None of those ideas align with how Trump sees America. He’s a capitalist — and consistently backs big business.

Having ties to the Big Apple, however, Trump is properly playing his cards with the incoming mayor. Just like the banks that were bailed out in the recession and mortgage crisis of 2008, New York City is too big to fail. It is in his best interest to be an ally of Mamdani, even if he disagrees with many of his policies.

“We’re going to be helping him, to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York,” the president said.

Mamdani, who still refers to Trump as a fascist, returned the favor. “What I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” he said.

Trump’s sour outlook for the Empire State has been well documented in recent years. He’s consistently battling with Gov. Kathy Hochul on policies he views as being too forgiving or liberal. He’s also been at the center of legal battles, most recently with state Attorney General Letitia James.

Conservative and moderates upstate have similar views. Though Hochul is a Buffalo native, she’s been playing favorites with New York City knowing that’s where her strength lies in the voters.

But like Trump, Western New Yorkers need to be rooting for Mamdani. If New York City begins to fail, the outcome would offer this region a darker future than already exists.

For those who think downstate is the root of this county’s evils, that is far from the truth. We are moochers when it comes to the wealth that Albany distributes.

This county of 124,000 residents is able to have far too many — 18 school districts — thanks in part to what happens on Wall Street. In this fiscal year, more than $360 million was distributed to our county’s public schools in the state budget — a 3% increase.

By the way, 10 years ago, that aid amount was $242 million — or 49% less of what it is this year. Remember that the next time an area superintendent says Albany needs to do more to fund education locally.

If Mamdani’s policies start driving out business in Manhattan, how will the state continue to be so generous in its aid formulas for all schools? It is quite evident when viewing the landscape of upstate that leadership here has no answers on growing the economy — unless, of course, we keep building solar and wind farms.

About 15 years ago, a Rockefeller Institute of Government study found upstate accounted for about 24% of the state’s revenues in taxes and fees, but received 35% of the expenditures from Albany. That means downstate contributes 76 percent of the state revenues, but receives 65 percent of the expenditures from the state capital. Downstate, on those numbers alone, is subsidizing the rest of New York.

Maybe that’s why Trump was so enamored with Mamdani. “I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually,” the president said.

That could be wishful thinking. But knowing the reality of how much this county — and region — relies on the wealth of Wall Street to maintain our oversaturation of school districts and highly flawed local governments, we need to follow Trump’s lead.

If Mamdani and New York City hit a slowdown, upstate’s fragile system will be part of that pain.

John D’Agostino is the editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.