![\"Zohran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-02-26-154443.jpg\" "\\"Editorial")
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President Donald Trump holds a mock\u2011up Daily News front page reading \u201cTrump to City: Let\u2019s Build\u201d after a meeting with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the sit-down productive and said he looks forward to expanding housing in New York City.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of NYC Mayor<\/p>\n
The apparently blossoming working relationship between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0is rapidly turning into one of the more bizarre political stories of our time.<\/p>\n You could not find two diametrically opposite people if you tried. Their politics, policies and world views rarely align, if at all. They have both, at times, not held back in castigating the other<\/a> for their actions and opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite all the ways they don\u2019t see eye to eye, there they were, Mamdani and Trump, together in the Oval Office on Feb. 26. It was the second time in three months<\/a> the duo had met in such a manner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mamdani said he pitched to Trump plans to build 12,000 homes on the site of Sunnyside Yards in Queens<\/a> \u2014 something that has been thought of before.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ten years ago, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio pitched a similar development concept for the massive 180-acre train yard. Six years ago, the city and Amtrak, which controls most of Sunnyside Yards, published a \u201cmaster plan\u201d that further outlined a vision of creating a new neighborhood with affordable housing, parks, a new train station and other essential amenities.\u00a0<\/p>\n The price tag for decking over and developing Sunnyside Yards is enormous; the Mayor\u2019s office indicated that Mamdani told Trump the city would seek $21 billion in federal grants to get the job done.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an incredibly bold ask from the mayor, given that Trump has tried again and again, since retaking the White House, to pull money from New York City for other projects \u2014\u00a0from the Gateway Tunnel<\/a> to the Second Avenue Subway extension in East Harlem<\/a>. Would Trump agree to this while trying to stop progress in other areas of the city?<\/p>\n After Thursday\u2019s Oval Office meeting, the Mayor\u2019s office insisted that Mamdani and Trump agreed to discuss the Sunnyside Yards proposal further; the White House, however, has been mum about the meeting.<\/p>\n Since his days as a real estate developer, Trump has always been about \u201cThe Art of the Deal<\/a>.\u201d In his view, nothing gets done for free; there is always a tradeoff. What would Trump seek from Mamdani and New York City to provide $21 billion for development at Sunnyside Yards?\u00a0<\/p>\n Flattery alone won\u2019t be enough to convince Trump to help New York. So what will?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Without question, the Sunnyside Yards plan should move forward, and Trump should make sure it does. Mamdani, however, must also insist that Trump end efforts to defund other vital city projects, such as the Gateway Tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway extension.<\/p>\n