New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday and pitched him on a massive housing project for the city where he spent much of his life as a real estate magnate.
It was their second sit-down since Mamdani, who identifies as both a Democrat and a democratic socialist, was elected in November.
“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon,” Mamdani wrote on X. “I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City.”
The post included a photo of Mamdani with Trump in the Oval Office, where Trump holds up two copies of the New York Daily News. One is a 1975 issue of the paper with President Gerald Ford and the headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead"; the other is a re-created copy of that issue with the headline "Trump to City: Let's Build."
New York is seeking $21 billion in federal grants for a construction project at Sunnyside Yard, where 12,000 affordable homes could be built, the mayor's office said in a news release after the White House meeting.
The project would include building new parks, schools and healthcare clinics and "would mark the largest housing and infrastructure investment in New York City in more than 50 years," Mamdani's office said.
"To meet this moment, we need a true federal partner prepared to invest boldly and act urgently. I appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with President Trump about building more housing in any single project than our city has seen since 1973," Mamdani said in a statement.
Joe Calvello, Mamdani’s press secretary, said Mamdani set up a meeting with Trump ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union address to discuss plans to build new housing in the city. Mamdani attended the meeting with his chief of staff, Elle Bisgaard-Church, Calvello said.
“Last time the president and the mayor met, the president asked him to come back with big ideas to build big things together in New York City,” Calvello said. “So the mayor took him up on this offer.”
“And yes, our team did mock up front pages of newspapers and gave them to the president today at the meeting,” said Calvello. “The president was very enthusiastic about this idea.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting.
Calvello said Mamdani also raised the arrest of Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva, whom the Department of Homeland Security detained at her campus residence after DHS agents made what the school’s acting president called “misrepresentations to gain entry to the building.” Mamdani said in a post Thursday afternoon that Trump called him after their meeting to say that Aghayeva would be released "imminently"; she was released a short while later.
Mamdani "also handed a list of four additional students who had been detained in New York City to the president and his chief of staff and asked him to consider dismissing their cases," Calvello said.
Republicans have publicly bashed Mamdani, trying to frame him as a radical Democrat who would hurt New York City. At the same time, Trump and Mamdani had a friendlier-than-expected meeting at the White House in November, just days after Mamdani was elected mayor.
At the time, Trump called Mamdani "a very rational person" and said he believed Mamdani was "focused on New York City."
"We agree on a lot more than I would have thought," Trump said in November. "I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job."
Since that meeting, the extent of Trump's and Mamdani's relationship is unclear. Asked by a reporter Wednesday how often he speaks with Trump, Mamdani said he would keep those conversations "private." When the conversations do take place, he said, they center on bettering New York City.
Trump brought up Mamdani during his State of the Union address, calling him a "communist" but also referring to him as "a nice guy."
"I think he's a nice guy, actually," Trump said. "I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy."
In recent weeks, Trump has railed against a project to build another tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey underneath the Hudson River. He has emphasized that he did not want the federal government to be responsible for cost overruns, but Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week that the multibillion-dollar project would resume after the Trump administration released $127 million in frozen funds.
