Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
On Thursday, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani visited President Trump in the Oval Office — their second meeting since Mamdani was elected. “I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon,” the mayor wrote in a post on X. He confirmed early reports that the two of them talked about New York housing, adding, “I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City.”
Mamdani included a photo of the visit, where Trump, seated at the Resolute Desk, is cheesing like a toddler post-ice-cream cone, while Mamdani stands behind him, trying to look as neutral as possible. Trump also brought a couple of props for their photo op: a printout of the front page of the Daily News from the ’70s reading “Ford to City: Drop Dead” and a replica redesigned Trump’s way — “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” In Trump’s version, the newspaper pledged that Trump “backs new era of housing,” boasting 12,000-plus homes seemingly in progress.
In a follow-up post, Mamdani added that, during the meeting, he also shared concerns about Columbia student Ellie Aghayeva, who was reportedly detained by ICE Thursday morning after federal agents misrepresented themselves as looking for a missing person. “Just got off the phone with President Trump,” Mamdani wrote. “He has just informed me that [Aghayeva] will be released imminently.” Productive, indeed.
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