Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she isn’t surprised that Zohran Mamdani is walking straight into the Oval Office — even if it means sitting across from the same president who branded him a “100% Communist Lunatic” just weeks before Election Day.

The New York congresswoman told reporters Thursday that Mamdani’s upcoming White House meeting is exactly what a mayor-elect should be doing: engaging with anyone necessary to secure wins for the city, even when that means facing down a hostile administration.

“We’ll see,” she said, when asked what she expected from the Friday meeting. “He’s indicated he’s willing to sit down with anybody and everybody. I think we let Zohran lead. He’s been elected to lead New York City.”

Mamdani, 34, who soared to victory earlier this month on an affordability-first platform, is set to meet President Donald Trump in person for the first time. The president spent months threatening to choke off federal funding if the Queens assemblyman became mayor — a threat that only seemed to galvanize progressive voters across the five boroughs.

During the campaign, dealing with Trump loomed over every debate. Mamdani promised to confront the president “and his billionaire-backed donors,” while his opponent, independent Andrew Cuomo, pitched himself as the steadier hand who could play ball with Washington.

In his acceptance speech, Mamdani didn’t shy from the friction. “To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us,” he warned from the stage — a line that clearly got under the president’s skin. Trump later called the remark “very dangerous.”

But despite the political theater, the mayor-elect now faces the reality of governing the nation’s largest city. That means negotiating federal dollars for transit, housing, and social services at a moment when rising rents, childcare costs, and basic utilities have pushed families to the brink.

“Cost of living is something I heard time and time again from New Yorkers about why they voted for Donald Trump,” Mamdani said this week. “These are the stakes for New Yorkers, and their ability to keep calling this city their home.”

Trump announced the meeting with predictable bombast, referring on Truth Social to the “Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani,” appearing to mock the mayor-elect’s African middle name — a familiar tactic from the president’s playbook.

Still, Mamdani is heading to Washington anyway, determined to push affordability to the front of the national conversation. AOC, asked whether she hoped he would raise any particular issue, waved the question off.

“I trust him,” she said. “He’ll do what he thinks is best for the city of New York.”