President Trump Meets New York Mayor-Elect Mamdani At White House
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump during their first Oval Office meeting in 2025.
President Donald Trump will be back in his hometown today ahead of his big address before the United Nations General Assembly and other scheduled meetings with world leaders and Republican officials. But one specific item on his agenda caught many an eye: Trump is set to meet with Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion as part of his trip, their third such sit-down since last fall. But it will be closed to the press and we don’t yet know what will happen.
They’ll definitely discuss “issues”
On Sunday, City Hall confirmed that the two leaders would be meeting at the official mayoral residence late Monday afternoon, but little is known about what the pair will discuss. “The meeting will focus on issues affecting New York City and New Yorkers,” was the generic description an Mamdani administration spokesman offered. That could mean anything from federal infrastructure funding to the Knicks’ chances to repeat as NBA champions.
Mamdani has scheduled a press conference for after the meeting, but Trump is not expected to attend.
What Mamdani has said
Last week, Mamdani was asked whether he intended to meet with Trump or any other leaders that were in town for the international summit. Though the mayor did not confirm a meeting with the president at the time, he said their interactions are singularly focused on how they can work together in the city’s best interests.
“When it comes to the president, we continue to have a conversation about how best to deliver for the city, and that is a conversation that has been done in person, it’s been done over the phone, and it will continue so long as either of us have the ability to deliver for this city,” he said last Thursday.
Their previous meetups
Mamdani first met with Trump soon after his historic general election win last November with the then-mayor elect flying to Washington, D.C. for a White House sit-down. While Trump largely spent the election cycle bashing the Democratic candidate and floating threats to revoke federal funding from the city if Mamdani won, he appeared to have won the president over with Trump praising the incoming mayor and expressing their shared interest in seeing the city succeed.
The two met again in February where the mayor discussed a potential federal investment in an affordable housing project in Queens, complete with a mockup of a New York Daily News front page praising the prospective creation of 12,000 new homes. In the same meeting, Mamdani also raised the matter of several college students that had been detained by federal immigration authorities. One of those students, Ellie Aghayeva from Columbia University, was released from custody following the meeting.
Less friendly from afar
In the months since, Trump and Mamdani’s friendly dynamic has taken some hits as the two leaders have not shied away from criticism of the other. In April, Trump railed against the state’s proposed pied-à-terre tax, a measure supported by both Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul that would institute an annual surcharge on unoccupied, luxe second homes in the city. In a TruthSocial post, the president reverted to his past rhetoric against the mayor, writing, “Sadly, Mayor Mamdani is DESTROYING New York! It has no chance! The United States of America should not contribute to its failure. It will only get WORSE. The TAX, TAX, TAX Policies are SO WRONG. People are fleeing. They must change their ways, AND FAST. History has proven, THIS “STUFF” JUST DOESN’T WORK.”
Mamdani has continued to push back against the White House’s immigration policy, most recently joining other cities in a lawsuit challenging a federal rule they said would allow the federal government to deny visas and green cards to immigrants and their families.