New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he plans to concentrate on affordability when he meets with President Trump Friday on the White Home.
It is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Mamdani held a information convention Thursday morning at Metropolis Corridor Park, a day after Mr. Trump introduced the upcoming assembly between them. Many surprise if the high-stakes dialogue will diffuse the stress between the 2 leaders who’ve brazenly criticized one another.
The mayor-elect referred to as it “a possibility to make the case for New Yorkers,” and stated he additionally plans to debate financial safety and public security.
“I will be prepared for no matter occurs,” Mamdani stated.
Affordability prime of the agenda
New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks throughout a information convention at Metropolis Corridor Park on November 20, 2025.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP through Getty Photographs
“I can be heading to Washington, D.C. tomorrow to satisfy with President Trump on the White Home. It’s customary for the mayor of this metropolis to satisfy with the White Home, given their mutual reliance,” Mamdani stated Thursday morning. “It’s extra crucial than ever, given the nationwide disaster of affordability — one which New Yorkers know very effectively throughout these 5 boroughs — and the particular problem many cities are dealing with with balancing public security towards steps taken by this administration.”
The mayor-elect stated his crew reached out to arrange the assembly, “as a result of I’ll work with anybody to make life extra reasonably priced for the greater than 8.5 million individuals who name this metropolis dwelling.”
As for potential disagreements?
“I’ve many disagreements with the president, and I consider that we ought to be relentless and pursue all avenues and all conferences that might make our metropolis reasonably priced for each single New Yorker,” he continued. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I’ll work with him on any agenda that advantages New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I may also be the primary to say so.”
Mamdani says he’ll search frequent floor
Mamdani stated New Yorkers might even see the assembly as one between “two very completely different candidates who they voted for for a similar causes.”
“They wished a pacesetter who would tackle the price of residing disaster that makes it unimaginable for working folks to afford residing on this metropolis,” he added.
After Mr. Trump’s 2024 election victory, Mamdani stated he spoke with folks in neighborhoods with the most important swings towards Republican candidates — Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Street within the Bronx.
“After I requested these New Yorkers who they voted for and why, I met many who voted for President Trump, and so they informed me it was the affordability disaster, it was value of residing, value of residing, value of residing,” he stated. “They stated that they remembered having the ability to afford their lease, their baby care, their Con Ed, their public transit extra 4 years in the past than they might in that second.”
Mamdani stated that is one thing he and the president have in frequent.
“We ran a marketing campaign centered on the identical factor: Value of residing. And what we discovered, really, is that 1 in 10 New Yorkers who voted for Trump ended up voting for our marketing campaign, and so they did so as a result of they’re searching for leaders to truly ship on the price of residing disaster,” Mamdani stated.
“A possibility to make the case for New Yorkers”
CBS Information New York’s Marcia Kramer requested Mamdani how he feels heading into the White Home assembly. He informed reporters he is not involved and views it as a possibility.
“This is a chance to make the case for New Yorkers, and it is a case that displays what New Yorkers are having to stay by means of presently,” he informed Kramer.
He pointed to 1 in 4 New Yorkers residing in poverty and 1 in 5 struggling to afford the $2.90 bus fare.
“New Yorkers for whom the each day acts of stay have gotten more and more tougher to afford,” he continued. “And that is a possibility I’ve to make the case to President Trump, to the White Home, as to what it means to need to undergo by means of this affordability disaster and what it means to make it much more troublesome to take action.”
Mamdani was requested whether or not he expects to face any negativity from the president or from different lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trump has been a vocal critic of the democratic socialist, beforehand calling him a “communist” and threatening to withhold federal funding.
“Being a New Yorker implies that you are ready for all conditions, every kind of feedback, every kind of commentary,” Mamdani replied Thursday. “On the finish of it, the main target must be, what is the case that you just’re making, why are you there? And for me, it is not about myself, it is not a couple of relationship with a person, it is a couple of relationship between New York Metropolis and the White Home, the president, the federal administration.”
It is vital the 2 strike up a relationship for plenty of causes, Kramer reported. It is not solely about federal help or threats from White Home border czar Tom Homan to ship extra ICE brokers into town. Mamdani will want a federal safety clearance as a way to be briefed on terror threats and different legislation enforcement issues, and the president may maintain the important thing to that.
CBS Information New York requested Mamdani’s crew if he deliberate to satisfy with different lawmakers in Washington and had been informed we’ll discover out Friday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has tried to forge a working relationship with the president though they’ve main coverage disagreements, says she thinks the 2 males will have the ability to discover some frequent floor.
“Let’s get the Gateway Tunnel completed. Let’s work on our subway system, cash that we’d like right here within the metropolis. And in addition simply the dialog about how it’s not essential to ship within the Nationwide Guard as a result of crime goes down dramatically,” Hochul stated.
“We’ve got a communist coming to the White Home”
“It speaks volumes that tomorrow now we have a communist coming to the White Home, as a result of that is who the Democrat social gathering elected mayor of the most important metropolis within the nation,” White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated. “I believe it is very telling, however I additionally suppose it speaks to the truth that President Trump is keen to satisfy with anybody, and speak to anybody, and to attempt to do what’s proper on behalf of the American folks, whether or not they stay in blue states or pink states or blue cities, and in a metropolis that is changing into rather more left than I believe the president ever anticipated in his a few years of residing in New York itself.”
Leavitt was requested whether or not Mamdani may persuade the president to not minimize off funding New York Metropolis, as he has threatened.
“We’ll see how the assembly goes tomorrow, and I am going to let for the president converse for himself,” Leavitt stated.
Mamdani on disagreements with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch
The mayor-elect’s remarks adopted Wednesday’s announcement that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has agreed to remain on as chief of the police division.
“Each commissioner ought to be a fierce advocate for those who work for his or her division or their company, and I stay up for guaranteeing that that’s the case throughout the whole thing of my administration — the place, when I’ve a gathering with the commissioners, I do know that they’re bringing forth the considerations of those who they work with, these they symbolize, so we are able to ensure we are literally addressing them,” Mamdani informed reporters Thursday.
He added any disagreements they might have “are literally indicators of a wholesome relationship.”
“Too usually mayors and leaders need to encompass themselves with people who find themselves characterised by the quickness with which they will say sure, versus the quickness with which they will let you know their sincere opinion,” he stated.
As Mamdani’s transition crew continues to take form, he is asking his supporters to assist fundraise $4 million for transition-related bills.
Jessica Moore
contributed to this report.