From PBS NewsHour.
While Zohran Mamdani was running to be the next mayor of New York, he traded sharp verbal barbs with President Donald Trump. Mamdani once said that his administration would be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” while Trump falsely accused Mamdani of being in the country illegally and called him a “Communist Lunatic.”
Now, after two Oval Office meetings with the president since he became mayor, Mamdani says the two men have a “productive relationship … that is also honest.”
“The president and I have many disagreements. We’re not shy about them,” he told PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz in an exclusive interview airing Friday. “We’ve been public about them. We’ve been private about them.”
One thing on which they’re “very much in agreement is a love of New York City,” Mamdani said.
The mayor noted that during his second White House meeting with Trump in February, he asked the president for billions of dollars in federal grants for a major affordable housing project in Queens. Mamdani said he has also shared “my continued belief that ICE raids are cruel and inhumane, that they do nothing to advance the cause of public safety.”
“I want to always be honest with the president and with the public about where those disagreements are, and also, that my job is not to litigate the disagreements, but to deliver for the people of New York City,” Mamdani said.
When asked how often he and the president speak, the mayor said he “will keep that between the two of us.”
Watch PBS News for daily, breaking and live news, plus special coverage. We are home to PBS News Hour, ranked the most credible and objective TV news show.
Sign up for Here’s The Deal with Lisa Desjardins: https://to.pbs.org/41q6E8i
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe
PBS News podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG
Find more from PBS News at https://www.pbs.org/newshour
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Follow us:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsnews
X: http://www.twitter.com/newshour
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour
Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour
