Zohran Mamdani says he asked for meeting with Donald Trump

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Monday he had asked to meet with President Donald Trump to discuss a relationship with the White House and how to improve affordability for New Yorkers.

Mamdani spoke to reporters Monday at a Bronx food pantry, where he responded to Trump's announcement that he planned to meet with the city's next mayor.

"My team reached out to the White House to fulfill a commitment I made to New Yorkers over the course of this campaign, a commitment that showed a willingness to meet with anyone and everyone, so long as it was to the benefit of the 8½ million people that call the city their home," Mamdani said.

Mamdani said the president and the White House policies were leading to rising prices and an "affordability crisis that is pushing so many [residents] out of the city."

"I will go to make the case to the president and to anyone, frankly, that these are the kinds of things we need to change if we want to make it easier for New Yorkers and for Americans to afford the day-to-day necessities of their life," Mamdani said. 

Trump agreed on Sunday to meet with Mamdani.

"The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us, we’ll work something out. But he would like to come to Washington," Trump said during an impromptu news briefing with reporters on the tarmac of Palm Beach International Airport before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Up to now, the two men have traded barbs through the press and social media, with Trump often referring to Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a "communist."

The mayor-elect has had his own choice words for the president, addressing him directly during his acceptance speech after winning the Nov. 4 election.

"Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up," he said at the podium. "If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him."

On Sunday, Mamdani responded to news of an increase in parcel fees in the U.S. Postal Service with another slam on the president.

"The Trump administration continues to find new ways to raise costs on all of us. It’s time we have a City Hall that works relentlessly to ease the burden," the incoming mayor posted on X. "We will deliver on fast and free buses, universal child care and a rent freeze because New Yorkers need the relief."

During Sunday’s announcement, the president gave no indication of when the meeting would happen or what would be on the agenda.

He did say that he was rooting for the city.

"We want to see everything work out well for New York," Trump said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul encouraged Mamdani and Trump to meet as soon as possible.

Hochul said Monday that she recently talked with Mayor-elect Mamdani on a variety of issues, including her experiences talking with Trump, which she called “interesting.”

Asked at the Capitol in Albany if it was encouraging that Trump hasn’t acted on a threat to send National Guard troops if Mamdani was elected, Hochul said: “The president, at the heart of it all, is a New Yorker. I’ve used that as the foundation of our conversations, that New York is the economic foundation of our nation.”

Crime has fallen after a pandemic-related rise and, Hochul said, “We don’t need chaos in our streets and federal action would be counterproductive” to the city’s interests, Trump’s agenda and Trump’s personal business.

With Yancey Roy