Mamdani and Trump emerge from Gracie Mansion sit-down with nothing but praise

NEW YORK — In a continuation of one of the most unexpected bromances in American politics, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump praised each other Monday after meeting privately at the mayor’s residence in New York City for a wide-ranging discussion about everything from interior design to housing to immigration.

“I want what’s good for New York. I want what’s good for the country. So if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor, or a horrible mayor — I don’t want that. I want him to be a great mayor, and he’s certainly got potential, got great potential,” Trump, standing alongside Mamdani, told reporters on the lawn of Gracie Mansion before giving the mayor a slap on the back.

Mamdani — a democratic socialist who once freely called the Republican president a fascist but has taken a softer approach since taking office — returned the compliments by thanking Trump for committing to take conversations to “a new level” about securing federal funding for building more than 12,000 units of housing on top of an old rail yard in Queens.

“I appreciate the president, his interest in this, and we also know the president not just as the leader of the country but also as someone who has built quite a lot of housing here in our city,” Mamdani said.

But the deep disagreements between the two men weren’t far beneath the surface. The Trump administration’s revocation of temporary protected status for many groups of immigrants in New York City — most notably Haitians — was a prime topic of conversation.

“The mayor feels very strongly about it, I can tell you,” Trump said. “And he did bring it up.”

And more broadly, the two have diametrically opposed views on immigration enforcement. Mamdani has repeatedly criticized the increasing number of arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York City, even if he does not often call out the president by name.

Mamdani also offered a different view of the media’s role when asked about Trump’s decision to ban several news outlets, including POLITICO, from the White House.

“I told the president that we’re going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn,” Mamdani said. “And that is something that I believe in.”

Trump then told reporters he has “an obligation” to bar “fake news” from the White House. (POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW are suing the president over the ban.)

The roughly hourlong confab — their third meeting in less than a year — was set up at Mamdani’s request and included their respective chiefs of staff, Susie Wiles and Elle Bisgaard-Church. Trump came to New York early to make time for the meeting before he’s set to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

In his first two meetings with Trump at the White House, Mamdani raised the topic of constructing housing atop a vast rail depot in Queens known as Sunnyside Yard. And on Monday, the mayor said that he and Trump had agreed to elevate the project from conceptual talks to technical discussions between the city’s housing department and the White House.

Developing housing atop the rail yard has been a pipe dream for generations of mayors. Doing so would require navigating a complex ownership structure and constructing a multibillion-dollar platform over the tracks.

“What we're talking about is something very rare in our city: It's the possibility of constructing an entirely new neighborhood,” Mamdani said. “And again, it's only possible with federal partnership because of not only the scale of funding required, but also the authorization in constructing a platform that would then serve as the foundation for about 12,000 homes and about 30,000 jobs.”

The meeting with Trump comes amid a big week for Mamdani as this year’s United Nations General Assembly kicks off in Midtown Manhattan.

The mayor has either sat down with or is planning confabs with fellow leftists governing Norway, Brazil and Spain. Over the weekend, Mamdani hosted a bevy of mayors from around the globe, including ideological bedfellows from Toronto, Mexico City and Amsterdam. And Monday night, after his Trump meeting, the mayor was set to attend a previously unreported dinner with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s in New York to attend a U.N. event also featuring pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil.

But while those meetings provide only upside for solidifying Mamdani’s position in the firmament of the international left, sitting down with Trump offers mostly the opposite.

Since the two first linked up nearly a year ago for a surprisingly chummy Oval Office meeting, Mamdani has taken great care to curb his public criticisms of the president. He rarely calls out Trump directly. He never attacks him personally. And he has consistently refused to divulge the frequency and subject matter of his interactions with the president.

The running theory has always been that by keeping the peace, Mamdani can avoid a presidential outburst that could, given the power the federal government has over cities, translate into practical misery for the mayor’s constituents.

For now, that calculus appears to add up to organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, the keystone of the mayor’s base.

“Most people within DSA understand it’s a strategy and that Trump is a very sensitive and petulant person who receives any perceived slights in unpredictable ways,” said Grace Mausser, co-chair of DSA’s New York City chapter. “It’s very risky not just to Zohran himself but to the entire city to insult him directly.”

But Mamdani’s nice-guy approach is coming under increasing ideological strain.

The mayor’s tactic was initially thought of as a way to discourage Trump from surging federal immigration officials into New York City. Nine months into Mamdani’s term, however, ICE has ramped up arrests in the five boroughs.

And Trump has been adding to the roster of decisions anathema to the left, including a recent arms sale to Israel for a Middle Eastern war that remains a top issue for Mamdani’s base.

More broadly, Democrats across the country are leaning into fighters and outsiders, leaving less space for those looking to build bridges.

“As things get worse or as things change, I imagine the mayor’s political calculus will also change,” Mausser said, noting that Mamdani’s team is in contact with DSA and organizations specializing in immigration advocacy. “I don’t know what the tipping point will be.”

During Monday’s press conference, Mamdani illustrated the practical benefits of having a working relationship with the president.

During their last meeting at the White House in February, he noted, Trump called him shortly afterward to follow up about Sunnyside Yard and later released two students in federal immigration detention from a list of names Mamdani shared with the president.

“If a meeting can be the difference between detention and dignity, it's a meeting worth taking, all while being honest about the disagreements that we do have,” Mamdani said.

Monday’s meeting irked fellow party members of each official.

Conservative commentator Laura Loomer dinged the president in a social media post. And centrist Democrats expressed frustration that Mamdani’s presidential confab didn’t garner pushback in the same way House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took flack for meeting with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner last month — though sitting down with an outside adviser is different than a tête-à-tête with a sitting president.

“The same liberals who attacked [Jeffries] for meeting with Kushner have been radio silent on Mamdani's meeting with Trump this week,” said a person close to Jeffries, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Mamdani.

Despite the blowback, the unlikely good will between the mayor and the president even extended to Trump offering kind words about Mamdani’s furnishing sensibilities, saying Gracie Mansion “feels like a home” and “a beautiful place.”