New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani stated Thursday that he’s “not involved” his upcoming assembly with President Donald Trump might be a political lure, vowing as a substitute to middle the Oval Workplace sit-down on how they might work to make the town extra reasonably priced.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, is about to journey to Washington for a gathering with Trump on Friday, a doubtlessly explosive pairing of polar-opposite politicians who’ve been at odds for months.
At a information convention outdoors New York Metropolis Corridor, Mamdani stated he hopes to “share the information concerning the affordability disaster within the metropolis” whereas waving off the concept that the president may use the assembly to embarrass him.
“I’ve many disagreements with the president and I imagine that we ought to be relentless and pursue all avenues and all conferences that may make our metropolis reasonably priced for each single New Yorker,” he stated.
Mamdani received a shocking victory in New York Metropolis’s mayoral race this month with a marketing campaign closely centered on the town’s affordability disaster, promising to show the ability of presidency towards serving to the working class whereas additionally combating again towards a hostile Trump administration.
Trump has railed towards Mamdani for months, warning that his hometown would slide into chaos below the younger progressive’s management and urged he would withhold federal cash from the town if Mamdani received. Trump has additionally incorrectly referred to as him a communist and has threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda however grew to become a naturalized American citizen in 2018.
The president introduced the assembly in a social media publish Wednesday evening, placing Mamdani’s center title Kwame in citation marks whereas incorrectly referring to him because the “Communist Mayor of New York Metropolis.”
Tisch on Wednesday sidestepped any variations with Mayor-elect Mamdani, equivalent to what number of officers ought to be within the NYPD. However in an inner e-mail to NYPD officers, the commissioner wrote that she’d been reassured after a number of conferences with Mamdani. For his half, Mamdani stated he and Tisch are on the identical web page in relation to forming a brand new company to deal with psychological well being calls. NBC New York’s Andrew Siff reviews.
Mamdani dismissed the concept that he was strolling into an adversarial sit-down with Trump, telling reporters Thursday: “I’m not involved about this assembly. I view this assembly as a possibility to make my case, and I’ll make that case to anybody.”
When pressed additional, Mamdani stated he’d make it clear to the president that he was there as an emissary of the town, not merely a political newcomer.
“For me, it’s not about myself. It’s a few relationship between New York Metropolis and the White Home, the president, and the federal administration. And I’ll look to clarify my curiosity goes past any one in every of a person but it surely’s for the folks I look to characterize,” he stated.
When requested if he supposed to convey up the president’s threats of stepped-up immigration enforcement in New York, Mamdani tried to pivot again to his affordability argument.
“I feel affordability was on the core of our marketing campaign, and in addition it was affordability based mostly on the worth of defending each New Yorker,” he stated. “Which means defending them from worth gouging of their lives, but it surely additionally means defending them from ICE brokers and making it clear that I’ll look to representing each single particular person.”
Mamdani will take workplace as mayor subsequent yr, succeeding present Mayor Eric Adams, who has been touring overseas and posted an image on X Thursday morning of himself alongside an Uzbek official.
