{"id":189206,"date":"2026-05-11T13:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/189206\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:42:22","slug":"obama-meets-mamdani-in-new-york-city-ahead-of-a-preschool-reading-event-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/189206\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama meets Mamdani in New York City ahead of a preschool reading event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former President Obama, Mayor Mamdani read to children at Bronx child care center 00:40<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Former President Barack Obama met with New York City Mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/zohran-mamdani-democratic-socialism-can-flourish-anywhere\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Zohran Mamdani;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Zohran Mamdani&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Zohran Mamdani<\/a> for the first time on Saturday, where they read to preschoolers and led a sing-along at a child care center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The meeting comes as Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is also trying to build a working relationship with Republican President Trump. The meeting comes just over a week after Mamdani marked his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/zohran-mamdani-100-days-in-office\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:100th day in office;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;100th day in office&quot;}\" class=\"link \">100th day in office<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Obama and Mamdani did not take questions after reading the book &#8220;Alone and Together&#8221; to the children, and leading a sing-along of &#8220;The Wheels on the Bus.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The two leaders discussed the mayor&#8217;s vision for New York City and the importance of early childhood education, according to a news release from the mayor&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Great spending time with New York City&#8217;s Cutest,&#8221; Obama said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BarackObama\/status\/2045611513029730633?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:post on X;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;post on X&quot;}\" class=\"link \">post on X<\/a>. &#8220;And thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NYCMayor?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:@NYCMayor;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;@NYCMayor&quot;}\" class=\"link \">@NYCMayor<\/a> for giving me an excuse to break out my best &#8216;Wheels on the Bus.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The former two-term president and standard-bearer for the Democratic Party has offered to be a sounding board for Mamdani, 34, whose star power, youth and progressive agenda has made him stand out in Democratic politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mamdani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/zohran-mamdani-new-york-city-mayor-takes-oath-of-office-old-city-hall-subway-station\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:took office in January;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;took office in January&quot;}\" class=\"link \">took office in January<\/a> after a campaign centered on making New York City a more affordable place to live, centering his agenda on refocusing the vast power of government toward helping the city&#8217;s struggling working class.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Days before the election in November, Obama and Mamdani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/obama-mamdani-talk-as-election-day-approaches-new-york-city-mayors-race\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:spoke over the phone;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;spoke over the phone&quot;}\" class=\"link \">spoke over the phone<\/a> as some other major Democrats took a cautious political approach when it came to the democratic socialist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mamdani&#8217;s meeting with Obama comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/live-updates\/trump-mamdani-meeting-white-house-new-york\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:he has already met twice;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;he has already met twice&quot;}\" class=\"link \">he has already met twice<\/a> with President Trump at the White House in November and February to discuss issues affecting New York City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Despite those friendly meetings, their relationship has shown signs of strain recently, with Mr. Trump posting on Truth Social Thursday that Mamdani was &#8220;DESTROYING New York&#8221; with his taxing policies and threatened to pull federal funding for the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mamdani told &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; this week that he and Mr. Trump &#8220;are in touch&#8221; and are &#8220;honest, direct about the fact that we have many disagreements.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;There is one place of agreement that we have, which is that we both love New York City,&#8221; Mamdani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/mamdani-trump-in-touch-have-one-place-agreement-love-nyc\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:told &quot;CBS Mornings.&quot;;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;told &amp;quot&quot;}\" class=\"link \">told &#8220;CBS Mornings.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former President Obama, Mayor Mamdani read to children at Bronx child care center 00:40 Former President Barack Obama&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84289,84288,238,84287,5610,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-189206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-democratic-socialist","tag-mayor-mamdani","tag-new-york-city","tag-president-obama","tag-president-trump","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}