'I want him to be a great mayor': Mamdani-Trump bromance continues - USA Today

NEW YORK – The phone pals reconnected IRL after seven months – and this time the mayor played host.

President Donald Trump met with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at his official residence, the 1799-built Gracie Mansion located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood. The two discussed an array of issues affecting New York, from an affordable housing project to immigration enforcement to the president's recent ban on several media outlets, including CNN and MS NOW.

This was the duo’s third in-person meeting, the first two of which were held at the White House.

As the pair emerged from their meeting after 5 p.m. ET and addressed reporter's questions, Trump complimented the mayor and expressed his excitement at visiting what he had earlier described as one of his "favorite places."

"It sort of feels like a home and it's a special place, a very special," he said. "A beautiful place when you go inside and I've seen it with numerous different mayors and I said some great ones and some not so great ones. So hopefully you're going to be a great one. I'll be able to say you're going to be a great one and you're off to a start."

What did they chat about this time?

Mamdani said they spoke about affordability for city residents and the Sunnyside Yards residential project the two have been discussing over the past few months.

"At a time where hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are asking the questions of how they can afford this city, I appreciate the conversation the president and I have had on the subject of how we can make it easier to afford life in this great city that we call our home," Mamdani said.

Back in February, the mayor made a trip to the White House to pitch the idea of building 12,000 units of housing, half of them affordable units, at Sunnyside Yards in Queens with the help of federal grants.

On Monday, Trump told reporters he was familiar with the plans and the federal approvals and grants it would need.

"I know it very well. So when he mentioned Sunnyside Yards, they've been talking about developing that for 50 years," said Trump. "So maybe they have a shot at doing it."

Mamdani, for his part, said he was willing to reach across party lines to help the city.

"I have said time and again that I will work with anyone no matter what party they belong to, no matter how much you may disagree on other topics," said Mamdani. "Whoever has the power and the will to lift that weight off New Yorker's backs."

Trump, a native New Yorker, has had a warm relationship with the young mayor, a self-identified democratic socialist who took office in January, despite his deep criticism for his brand of politics.

The president has characterized left-wing Democrats as "hardcore, godless communists" and the greatest threat the U.S. has ever faced.

“It’s going to be a communist country if they win,” Trump said during the Republican midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month.

“In state after state, the Democrat establishment has been overthrown and replaced by crazed lunatics and radicals,” he said, adding, “America has beaten communism before, and we will beat it again."

Earlier this month, Mamdani and mayors around the country filed a joint lawsuit seeking to stop Trump from making it harder for lawful immigrants to receive green cards or visas. 

Still, the last time they met in February, Mamdani posted a photo of himself in the Oval Office grinning cheek to cheek while standing next to Trump. In the photo, the president is seated behind the Resolute Desk, holding up a mock-up front page of the Daily News with the headline “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” A subheading notes: “Trump delivers 12,000 homes.”

On Monday, Trump was full of praise for Mamdani.

"I want what's good for New York. I want what's good for the country," he said. "So, if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor or horrible mayor. I don't want that. I want him to be a great mayor, and he certainly got potential, got great potential."

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal.