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.

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 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 is “a beautiful place.”