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Mamdani and Trump talk housing in Oval Office meeting
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 26, 2026
Modified Feb 26, 2026
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 26, 2026
Modified Feb 26, 2026
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump met Thursday to discuss housing in New York City as well as a Columbia University student who was detained by federal immigration officials.
Mamdani’s spokesperson Joe Calvello told reporters both men discussed a plan to build 12,000 new housing units.
It was the second face-to-face meeting between Mamdani and Trump, a Queens native who has repeatedly praised the young mayor.
On Thursday afternoon, Mamdani posted a photo of himself and a smiling Trump. The president can be seen holding a mock front page of the New York Daily News with the headline “Trump to City: Let’s Build,” stating that "Trump delivers more than 12,000+ homes," the "most since 1973."
In Trump's other hand was the famous 1975 front page of the Daily News with the headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” referring to then-President Gerald Ford’s refusal to aid a cash-strapped New York City.
President Trump has expressed admiration for Mayor Mamdani.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Calvello confirmed that the mayor’s office created the mock front pages and presented them to Trump at the meeting.
“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon,” Mamdani wrote in the social media post. “I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City.”
Later in the day, City Hall confirmed Mamdani had pitched Trump on making the largest federal investment in more than 50 years to build a housing development above Sunnyside Yards.
Trump told Mamdani after the meeting that Elmina Aghayeva, a Columbia University student detained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, would be released, which she was later in the day.
Trump and Mamdani's last meeting in November took many observers by surprise, with the president repeatedly praising Mamdani as a “rational man” and heralding their sit-down as a “great meeting.”
“I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy,” Trump said of Mamdani during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
This story has been updated with new information.
Tagged
Politics
Zohran Mamdani
donald trump
new york city
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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