New York’s mayor-elect said the two sides discussed cost-of-living issues, but what was left on the table could affect the budding relationship.
Surprisingly friendly meeting between President Trump and Zoran Mamdani
USA TODAY’s Joey Garrison breaks down the surprisingly friendly meeting between President Donald Trump and New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani.
NEW YORK – Zoran Mamdani and Donald Trump have met again, this time without the fanfare of their first meeting.
Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist mayor-elect of New York, spoke briefly by phone with the Republican president by the end of November. Their phone call, first revealed by Mamdani on Spectrum News NY1 on Dec. 2, came less than two weeks after their surprisingly amicable Oval Office meeting on Nov. 21.
“I have always kept the conversation focused on the well-being of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said on NY1’s “Inside City Hall.” “And the fact that New Yorkers are still struggling under the cost of living crisis.”
Mamdani, who takes office on Jan. 1, did not say when the call took place, but said he spoke by phone before a Nov. 29 clash between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Lower Manhattan. A Mamdani spokesperson said the discussions took place before Thanksgiving.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Mamdani said he offered his condolences to President Trump over the Nov. 26 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., leaving one soldier dead.
In addition, Mamdani said they discussed the importance of building housing and supporting New Yorkers looking to leave the city.
The call came before New York City protesters clashed with ICE.
Mr. Mamdani’s conversation with Mr. Trump took place before the weekend’s immigration enforcement action, during which federal agents were said to have planned to launch raids before protesters interfered. New York City police arrested several protesters who tried to block the agents and vehicles.
Immigration could affect the budding relationship between the president and mayor of the nation’s largest city, where immigrants make up nearly 40 percent of the population. President Trump has vowed to crack down on immigration, both legal and illegal. Mamdani wants to protect immigrant New Yorkers by limiting cooperation between police and federal immigration enforcement.
“We intend to make it clear that the NYPD does not support ICE’s actions,” Mamdani said. “And I also said to the president, frankly, that they are brutal and inhumane and have not done anything that is actually in the interest of public safety.”
Mamdani noted that on November 26, a six-year-old first grade student from China and his father were detained who were seeking asylum.
Community activist Jenny Specter said Yuanxing and her father, Fei, were attending a routine ICE check-in at a federal building in Manhattan when they were detained and separated. Spector recently spoke with her father, who is being held in a county jail in the city’s northern suburbs. Spector said Yuanxin’s whereabouts are unknown. USA TODAY is not publishing the family’s last names.
Spector said they entered the country in April and had previously been detained. After being released on parole in October, but before his family was taken into custody, Yuanxin enrolled in a school in Queens, in Mamdani’s current state legislative district.
Mamdani vowed to fight for families like hers.
“The fact is, we deserve a mayor who understands his responsibility to everyone who calls this city home,” he said. “That includes more than 3 million immigrant New Yorkers.”
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE responded to emailed requests for comment.
McLaughlin said in a statement that Fay “refused to board the plane and behaved in a highly disruptive and aggressive manner, putting the child’s health at risk.” “At one point he tried to abandon his son and run away,” Spector said, adding that federal officials appeared to be referring to an incident earlier this year when Fay and her son were taken into custody. Authorities later released them together.
The Trump administration has ordered federal agents and National Guard troops into several U.S. cities as part of a sweeping immigration crackdown. So far, President Trump has not ordered the deployment of troops to his hometown of New York.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Contact us via email (emcuevas1@usatoday.com) or Signal (emcuevas.01).
