New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani claimed a victory on Thursday after meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Mamdani left the White House having secured the release of a Columbia University student who was detained by federal immigration agents at her campus apartment earlier in the day.
Mamdani’s stealth visit to Washington, which was left off the mayor’s public schedule and wasn’t revealed by his staff until he was already en route to the nation’s capital, was his second in-person meeting with Trump.
Mamdani shared with Trump his concerns about the detention of the Columbia student, Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva. Shortly after the mayor departed the White House, Trump called him to say Aghayeva would be released “imminently,” Mamdani wrote on X.
According to Mamdani spokeswoman Anna Bahr, the mayor gave a list of four other detained students to Trump and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and expressed his desire for their release.
Mamdani also pitched Trump on a plan for the federal government to help build at least 12,000 new housing units in New York City.
To help sell the idea, Mamdani’s team printed out a mockup New York Daily News cover to depict the favorable coverage Trump might receive in his home city if he were to assist in building those units. A fake front-page headline said, “Trump to City: Let’s Build.”
Mamdani posted a photo of him and Trump in the Oval Office, with the president beaming while holding the mock cover.
In the post, Mamdani said the meeting was “productive.”
Trump was “enthusiastic” about the idea to build more housing, Bahr said.
Mamdani and Trump held their first meeting in November, shocking observers. They marveled at how well the young democratic socialist and 79-year-old Republican, who are both from Queens, got along.
The men have continued to speak via text, and on Thursday, they again appeared to find common ground on multiple issues.
The cordial meeting was the latest development in a stunningly productive and friendly relationship between two men who are political opposites and traded barbs during Mamdani’s campaign for mayor.
Mamdani said in August that his administration would be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” while Trump once said on social media that Mamdani “looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart.”
“Mamdani knows his audience,” Joe Borelli, a former Republican New York City councilman and current managing director of the Chartwell Strategy Group, told MS NOW.
“He is playing this relationship well, but the truth is both men benefit from surprising their critics and developing relationships far, far across the aisle,” he said.
Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.