Mamdani’s meeting with Trump was a Trojan Horse triumph at the White House | US politics
In the hours after Zohran Mamdani met with Donald Trump for an undisclosed meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday. a breast It circulated quickly on X.
It looked like a screenshot of a TikToker offering questionable financial advice but instead had the mayor’s image front and center. On the left it says “I’m buying 12,000 homes” and “The release of a voter kidnapped by ICE” and on the right it says “You’re buying a fake newspaper cover.”
It was a nice summation of two unexpected victories that Mamdani had achieved for little in return in Washington, part of an unexpectedly friendly relationship that continues to grow between City Hall and the White House. Mamdani’s office later confirmed that the mayor had made a proposal to provide $21 billion in federal grants to fulfill a central promise to create more affordable housing citywide. This would include construction of a deck that would build 12,000 housing units above the busy railroad station in Sunnyside, Queens. The mayor appeared “enthusiastic,” according to the mayor’s chief spokesman.
To smooth things over, Mamdani made sure to play to Trump’s ego. For the former real estate developer-turned-reality TV star-turned-commander-in-chief, flattery can get you anywhere.
The mayor presented the president with a pair of front pages of the New York Daily News. The first of these was the infamous 1975 hangover in which Gerald Ford effectively told a bankrupt New York City to die. The second was a special model that served as bait for a president who was busy building an old structure. The fake cover read: “Trump Delivered More Than 12,000 Homes; Most Since 1973.” Mamdani shared this on social media: grainy image of himselfDetermined stands behind the desk and holds the fax while the president grins angrily.
For Trump, who is obsessed with architecture and has a particular fondness for ensuring that architecture is a lasting manifestation of his time in office (see the ongoing construction of the president’s prized East Wing ballroom and the naming of the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Mamdani has managed to generate interest by focusing on the New York real estate market; gets excited Trump is filled with equal parts passion and frustration.
There was what appeared to be a Trojan Horse victory at the White House on Thursday. While Mamdani captured the president’s attention with his ownership talk, he also secured the release of a Columbia University student from federal immigration detention following his arrest that same morning. The mayor also asked Trump to consider dismissing the cases of four students, including Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who were all detained in New York, according to Mamdani’s chief spokesman.
Instead of engaging in a social media war with the administration, persistent threats from the president, and press conferences full of accusations, the real “art of the deal” could be soft power through Photoshop.
Now the question remains: Is there a price for the mayor’s conciliatory behavior?
On the campaign trail last year, Mamdani wasted no time in calling the president a “tyrant.” Now, after a landslide victory and firmly entrenched in Gracie Mansion, he has refrained from publicly calling out the president and tried to escape his wrath when it comes to routine threats to withhold federal funding for sanctuary cities. It’s an anger that other blue city mayors, like Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, have not been spared.
In fact, since Mamdani’s first and surprisingly friendly meeting with Trump in November, he and the president have avoided any public debate. Last year, as reporters and cameras prepared for the public impeachment of the newly elected mayor, it became clear that while Trump loved to disparage his political opponents, he liked the winner better. “He came out of nowhere,” the president said of Mamdani. “We agree on a lot more things than I thought we would.”
The mayor was left relatively unscathed by Trump’s references to Mamdani during his record-setting State of the Union address, where he wasted no time mocking Democrats. “I talk to him a lot. Bad policy but good guy,” the president said.
At a time when the gulf between the two sides has never been deeper, Mamdani may be proving the point of catching more flies with honey. But for a democratic socialist who staked his victory on being the president’s “worst nightmare,” his closeness with the president seems like a chink in the armor to some viewers.
Mamdani has previously vowed to use his power to “reject the fascism of Donald Trump,” but as he tries to drum up goodwill to enact his mayoral agenda, some New York progressives are ready to call out any perceived loopholes — especially if he backtracks after the combative remarks that defined his campaign. In recent weeks he was already facing some local pushback to continue homeless camp sweeps in New York City, this time run by a more appropriate agency, despite promising to end the practice when running for office.
It is too early to herald the concessions Mamdani received from Trump as categorical victories. New Yorkers have yet to hear whether the administration will transfer the funds needed for the housing project, and as a result, the mayor faces a volatile president who has little qualms about tossing out relationships at the first sign of tension.
For now, Mamdani seems to be bending over to get what she needs: two guys from New York chattering about real estate.
