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The incoming NYC mayor says he still believes the US president is a fascist, two days after they had a friendly meeting.

New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he still believes United States President Donald Trump is a fascist, despite a surprisingly warm meeting between the two politically polarised men at the White House this week.

“That’s something that I’ve said in the past; I say it today,” Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, said about the Republican president in an interview aired on NBC News on Sunday.

Mamdani’s comments came two days after he met with Trump, setting aside months of mutual recriminations and promising to cooperate on the city’s future.

Trump, who grew up in New York, called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” in a social media post following the incoming mayor’s election victory, and Mamdani has said Trump was attacking democracy.

During their meeting, Trump, who had previously suggested the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported, even came to his rescue as the two addressed reporters at the White House.

When a journalist asked Mamdani if he continued to view Trump as a fascist, the president stepped in.

“That’s OK. You can just say it. That’s easier,” Trump told Mamdani. “It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

Mamdani elaborated his stand further in the NBC interview.

“[What] I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that have brought us to this moment,” he said.

“I found the meeting that I had with the president a productive one and a meeting that came back again and again to the central themes of the campaign that we ran: the cost of housing, cost of childcare, the cost of groceries, the cost of utilities.”

After threatening to cut federal funding to the US’s biggest city and to send in the US National Guard, Trump praised Mamdani’s historic election win during their meeting, saying he could do a “great job”.

“We’ve just had a great … very productive meeting. We have one thing in common: we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” he said later. “We are going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true: having a strong and very safe New York.”

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on the CNN news programme State of the Union that Trump wants to work with everybody who cares about the future of the American people.

“We’re at times disagreeing about policies,” Hassett said, “but I think that the objective of making life better for everybody is something that a lot of people share on the Democratic and Republican side.”

Italian Sinner has warned that Alex de Minaur “doesn’t have a lot to lose” in their semi-final.

Sinner advanced to the last four without dropping a set or a service game, showcasing his clinical touch against Shelton by converting two of his three break-point opportunities in the first set and sealing the win in the tie-break with his second match point.

Efficient on serve throughout the match, he shut down Shelton’s only break point – he has now saved all eight he has faced in Turin – and gave up just seven points in six second-set service games.

The 24-year-old, targeting a third consecutive appearance in the final at the end-of-season showpiece, boasts a 12-0 record against seventh seeded De Minaur but is unwilling to underestimate the Australian, who upset Taylor Fritz to clinch second place in the Jimmy Connors Group.

“I’m very happy for [De Minaur],” Sinner said. “Props to him for coming back with that performance [against Fritz]. It’s one of the best matches I’ve seen him play.

“I have to be very careful – he doesn’t have a lot to lose. It’s going to be very difficult.”

In the doubles, a 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 victory for Henry Patten and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara over Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic means there will be five British players in the semi-finals – the most from a single nation since 1992.

British duo Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski, who had already qualified, maintained their 100% record with a 7-5 6-3 win against Christian Harrison and Evan King and will face fellow Britons and year-end number ones Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool in the last four.