U.S. President Donald Trump and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani held a surprise meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on the 26th (local time).
According to the New York Times (NYT) and others, Mayor Mamdani headed to Washington, D.C., with aides in the morning and met with President Trump, and the two discussed New York housing issues and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on Columbia University's foreign students. The meeting was not on their public schedules.
Mamdani later wrote on social media (SNS) X (formerly Twitter), saying, "Had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon," and, "I look forward to more dwellings being built in New York City."
He also said he received a promise from President Trump that an Azerbaijan student at Columbia University in New York who was arrested by ICE that morning would be released soon.
He posted a photo taken with President Trump in the Oval Office. In the photo, President Trump is sitting with a big smile, holding in each hand a sheet printed with a newspaper front page, and Mamdani is standing next to him.
In Trump's left hand was the actual front page of the New York Daily News from 1975. The paper carried the famous headline that ran when New York City was on the brink of bankruptcy after President Gerald Ford refused a bailout: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."
In his right hand was a "fake" front page prepared by Mamdani's team, which featured a photo of President Trump and the headline, "Trump to City: Let's build together." In smaller text below were the lines, "Supporting a new era of dwellings," and, "Trump to deliver more than 12,000 dwellings; largest since 1973."
President Trump, a conservative, and Mayor Mamdani, a progressive, had fiercely criticized each other in the past. But after their first meeting in November last year unfolded in an unexpectedly friendly atmosphere, Mamdani has refrained from directly criticizing President Trump.