Mamdani meets with Trump in unannounced trip to Washington | New York

Zohran Mamdani met with Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday during his unannounced visit to the nation’s capital.

mayor of new york in question He had a “productive” meeting with the US president and was “looking forward to building more housing in New York City” in a post on X.

Joe Calvello, the mayor’s chief spokesman, told the Guardian that Mamdani presented the president with a possible project in New York City that would “provide one of the largest federal investments in housing in 50 years.”

Calvello added that the mayor proposed a housing project with “an estimated 12,000 units” and that Trump “seemed enthusiastic” about the idea, but did not provide further details about the project’s timeline, location or next steps.

Mamdani also shared a photo on her social media of herself standing next to a grinning Trump at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. The president is seen holding two headlines from the New York Daily News. Someone now famous front page After former Republican president Gerald Ford refused to provide a federal bailout to New York City, which was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1973. The other appears to be a fake printout showing a picture of the president and the headline “Trump to City: Let’s Build” with the words “Trump Delivering More Than 12,000 Homes; Most Since 1973” underneath.

Mamdani’s spokesman confirmed that his team had forged newspaper front pages for the mayor to present to the president.

mamdani also said He spoke to the president by phone after the meeting to discuss the arrest of Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by federal immigration officials on Thursday.

“He informed me that he would be released soon,” Mamdani said. The White House did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.

Aghayeva was arrested by officers who reportedly misrepresented themselves by pretending to be New York City police officers searching for a missing child in order to enter a residential building and make the arrest. But a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), denied that the agents were impersonating the NYPD and appeared to suggest that Aghayeva was no longer a student.

Mamdani’s spokesman said the mayor “directly asked the president” for Aghayeva’s release and handed over to the president “a list of four other students detained in New York City” and asked him to consider dismissing those students’ cases.

An official from the New York City mayor’s office had previously confirmed to the Guardian Mamdani’s meeting with Trump on Thursday but did not comment on the agenda. Neither the mayor nor the president’s public schedules included the meeting.

The hearing took place just days after Trump said in his record-breaking State of the Union address on Tuesday that he was in regular contact with Mamdani.

“The new communist mayor of New York City, I actually think he’s a good guy,” Trump said of the democratic socialist. “I talk to him a lot. Bad policy but good guy.”

This is the second time the two New Yorkers have met in person, following an unexpectedly cordial summit in November after Mamdani won the mayoral election with a landslide victory. Throughout the mayor’s campaign, Trump denigrated Mamdani’s platform and character on social media, calling her a “communist lunatic” and a “total nutjob.” He even pushed New Yorkers to vote for former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running for mayor as an independent.

Mamandi, who once promised to be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” has done little to antagonize the president since taking office. He also offered cautious comments about administration policies that could affect New York, particularly Trump’s routine threats to cut federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities.

Mamdani said Wednesday when asked how often he communicates with the president. in question “They’re always having conversations focused on how to get the city moving forward.”

Trump was surprisingly enthusiastic when speaking to reporters after a meeting with the mayor late last year, touting his massive election victory. The president praised how Mamdani “came out of nowhere” and praised her campaign and staff.

“We agree on a lot more things than I thought we would,” Trump said at the time. “I want him to do a great job, and we’re going to help them do a great job.”

Alice Speri contributed reporting