Mayor Zohran Mamdani snuck off to Washington, DC, Thursday to talk housing with President Trump — and brought along a photoshopped version of a New York City newspaper in an attempt to flatter him.
The democratic socialist mayor and the president had a closed-door meeting at the White House that Hizzoner described as “productive.”
“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon,” he posted on X. “I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with President Trump in the Oval Office to discuss ways to build new housing in New York City. NYC Mayor’s Office
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Mamdani attached a seemingly heavily edited photo showing him standing at the Resolute Desk next to a seated, beaming Trump, who held a fake front page with the headline: “TRUMP TO CITY: LET’S BUILD” and his portrait.
“Backs new era of housing,” the bogus newspaper cover blared. “Trump delivers 12,000+ homes. Most since 1973.”
In his other hand, Trump held up the famous “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” October 1975 headline from the since-depleted New York Daily News.
The Oval Office sit-down — the mayor’s second since his election in November — touched on a “variety of housing projects” that could amount to a “historic investment” in new housing in the Big Apple, sources briefed on the agenda said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an unannounced trip to Washington, DC, on Thursday to meet with President Trump, The Post has learned. Stephen Yang for NY Post
City Hall made no mention that the mayor was leaving the Big Apple, with nothing on his public schedule for the day. The mayor’s reps confirmed the planned meeting after The Post first broke news of the secret trip.
A source said Mamdani flew to DC to help “put icing” on a proposed bill by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren that would curb Wall Street’s ability to buy housing.
Mamdani, wearing a black hat and mask, was spotted with his entourage Thursday morning riding in the back of a Delta plane. He was joined by a top adviser, Morris Katz, who has no formal role in City Hall.
Trump on Tuesday night gave Hizzoner a shoutout during the State of the Union.
“The new communist mayor of New York City, I think he’s a nice guy, actually,” Trump said. “I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.”
The president also made a point during his annual address to highlight his focus on creating more housing for Americans.
“Last month I signed executive order to ban large Wall Street investment firms from buying up, in the thousands, single family homes … And now I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent, because homes for people — really, that’s what we want,” he said.
Trump on Tuesday night gave the democratic socialist a shoutout during the State of the Union. Gripas Yuri/ABACA/Shutterstock
“We want homes for people, not for corporations. Corporations are doing just fine,” the president added, echoing an issue the left has often railed about.
The commander-in-chief and young Big Apple mayor have been talking often since the two met face to face in DC last year.
Their chummy first White House meeting in November shocked the political world, with insiders dubbing it the start of a “bromance.”
Sources said Hizzoner would be meeting Trump at the White House in the afternoon. AFP via Getty Images
Trump at one point even gave Mamdani cover when the then-mayor-elect was pressed by reporters about his prior attacks on the president.
The pair also discussed housing issues at the time, with Mamdani’s team calling the meeting “productive.”
The mayor’s chief of staff, Elle Bisgaard-Church, told The Post after that Mamdani and Trump spoke about how the city can cut red tape to fast-track housing development.
Bisgaard-Church said Trump was notably interested in Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (EULER), a 90-day streamlined approval process for affordable housing projects with little zoning adjustments.
The typical process for approval —Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, aka ULURP — can drag out past seven months.
“The president felt very interested in a kind of common sense approach to reduce onerous burdens on the housing and development owners, actually,” Bisgaard-Church said at the time.