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Tag: zohran mamdani

  • Here are the top 4 takeaways from the Trump-Mamdani meeting

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    As New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani wrapped up his high-stakes meeting with President Trump Friday, the president said the two had a great conversation centered on the future of New York City. 

    The two leaders spent half an hour answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office and highlighting some surprising areas of agreement.

    Here are the top four takeaways from the meeting. 

    The meeting was surprisingly cordial

    Mr. Trump and Mamdani have spent months criticizing each other. For two people who appeared, going into the meeting, to be at such loggerheads, the conviviality the two displayed, cracking jokes and offering friendly pats with one another, was surprising. 

    They joked about past names they’ve called one another. At one point, Mr. Trump responded when Mamdani was asked about having called the president a “despot” and “fascist.” 

    “I’ve been called much worse than a despot,” Mr. Trump said. “I think he’ll change his mind once he gets to know me.” 

    During the meeting, Mr. Trump clapped Mamdani on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. At one point, Mr. Trump told reporters Mamdani could end up being the best mayor New York has ever seen. 

    “I just want to congratulate [him], I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor, and the better he does, the happier I am,” Mr. Trump said. 

    The two pledged to work together

    Mamdani and Mr. Trump, who both have roots in Queens, said repeatedly they look forward to working together. 

    “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Mr. Trump said. “A big help, because I want New York City to be great.” 

    The two appeared to bury the hatchet, abandoning the name-calling and divisive rhetoric. 

    Mamdani seemed to relish his first test of diplomacy on the national stage, smiling and laughing as the two spoke about common ground. 

    “When I spoke to New Yorkers who had voted for the president last November on Hillside Avenue and Fordham Road, I heard, again and again, two major reasons. One, was that they wanted an end to forever wars. They wanted an end to taxpayer dollars we had funding violations of human rights, and they wanted to address the cost of living crisis. And I appreciated the chance to discuss both of those things,” Mamdani said.

    “He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m OK with that,” Mr. Trump said. 

    Mr. Trump has previously threatened to pull federal funding if Mamdani won. He said Friday he and Mamdani are aligned on many issues, like keeping New York City safe. 

    “So, we’re going to work together. We’re going to make sure that if there are horrible people, that we want to get them out,” Mr. Trump said. “He wants to have a safe New York. Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York.”  

    Mr. Trump said he’d feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration. 

    Mamdani got good advice

    Before the meeting, Mamdani spoke by phone with Gov. Kathy Hochul, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

    Based on the outcome of the meeting, Mamdani got some good advice. 

    “I think that [Mamdani] went there knowing that he had to make a friend of Donald Trump for this reason: he can’t get his agenda passed if he has troops marching down Fifth Avenue, or if he has to deal with more ICE agents,” CBS News New York’s political reporter Marcia Kramer said. “He can’t do his budget if he’s going to have a huge chunk in it caused by a loss of federal funds. So he knew he had to make him his friend. And I think he did that, and I think that the advice probably that made the most sense to him came from Gov. Hochul. Because the governor had tried repeatedly to get along with the president, and I think she gave him some tips on how to do it.” 

    Kramer added that both Mr. Trump and Mamdani “had a lot riding on this meeting.” 

    “[President Trump] doesn’t need a fight with the mayor of New York City, who has the media spotlight, not only in New York City, but the international media spotlight. This is not something President Trump wants,” Kramer said. “And besides, let’s remember this. This is his hometown. He may be living in Florida. This is his hometown. He has a lot of real estate interests here. And if Mr. Mamdani does not succeed as mayor, it’s going to hurt the president in his pocketbook.” 

    Mr. Trump said he wanted to be mayor himself

    A surprising moment was when Mr. Trump admitted that being mayor of New York is a “big deal.” 

    “I always said, one of the things I would’ve loved to be someday, is the mayor of New York City, ” Mr. Trump said. 

    Kramer pointed out that the president is term-limited, but he could run for mayor in New York City at the end of his term. 

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  • Trump-Mamdani meeting marked by surprising moments of praise. Here are 9 memorable quotes.

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    President Trump’s meeting with incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday was not expected to be warm and congenial. The two politicians agree on very little, and they’ve lobbed attacks at each other for months, with Mr. Trump calling Mamdani a “100% communist lunatic” and Mamdani describing himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”

    But instead, the two men seemed to hit it off. In a surreal 30-minute Oval Office appearance, Mr. Trump lavished Mamdani with praise, calling him “very rational” and predicting he could do “really great” things for their shared hometown. Mamdani, standing beside Mr. Trump, steered clear of criticizing the president — sometimes with an assist from Mr. Trump himself — and pledged to work with the administration on cost-of-living issues.

    Here are the highlights:

    “I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor”

    Mr. Trump was unceasingly optimistic about Mamdani, saying that during a private one-on-one meeting before their public appearance, the two men agreed on more than he expected. He pointed to Mamdani’s focus on affordability and stated desire to build more housing.

    “I think you’re going to have, hopefully, a really great mayor,” the president said. “The better he does, the happier I am.”

    “I think he is going to surprise some conservative people”

    Days before the election, Mr. Trump had encouraged people to vote for Mamdani’s chief rival, Democratic governor-turned-independent Andrew Cuomo.

    But on Friday, the president said: “I feel very confident that he can do a very good job…I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually. And some very liberal people, he won’t surprise them because they already like him.”

    “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him”

    For months, Mr. Trump has flirted with cutting off federal financial support to New York City if Mamdani wins, suggesting it would be a waste.

    After their meeting, Mr. Trump didn’t fully back away from the threat, but said it was unlikely.

    “I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Mr. Trump said. “A big help. Because I want New York City to be great. Look, I love New York City, it’s where I come from, I spent a lot of years there. … I think this mayor could do some things that are going to be really great.”

    Does Mamdani think Trump is a fascist? “That’s okay, you can just say yes,” president says

    At various points, reporters pressed Mamdani on whether he stands by his prior attacks on Mr. Trump —  and the president helped him dodge.

    One reporter asked Mamdani if he believes Mr. Trump is a “fascist.” As the incoming mayor began to answer, the president laughed and cut him off.

    “That’s okay, you can just say yes,” Mr. Trump interjected, patting Mamdani on the arm. “That’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

    Earlier in the meeting, Mamdani was asked if he still believes Mr. Trump is a “despot.”

    Said Mr. Trump: “I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting. I think he’ll change his mind after we get to working together.”

    “He’s got views that [are] a little out there, but who knows”

    The president also deflected when asked about his claim that Mamdani is a “communist.”  

    Said Mr. Trump: “He’s got views that [are] a little out there, but who knows. I mean, we’re going to see what works.” 

    “He’s going to change, also. We all change. I changed a lot,” the president continued.

    Mamdani describes himself as a democratic socialist, not a communist. He stood by that label on Friday.

    Trump: Mamdani isn’t a “jihadist,” he’s “very rational”

    Earlier this month, GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik — a candidate for governor of New York — called Mamdani an “Antisemite Jihadist Communist.”

    Asked if he agrees that Mamdani is a “jihadist,” Mr. Trump said no.

    “I met with a man who’s a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again,” the president continued.

    “I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York”

    Mr. Trump — a Queens native whose primary residence is now in Florida — said he’d feel comfortable moving back to New York City under Mamdani’s leadership.

    “I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York, and I think much more so after the meeting,” he said.

    The pair’s views on crime and immigration enforcement came up repeatedly on Friday. The president expressed confidence in Mamdani: He said he believes the mayor-elect cares about public safety, and praised Mamdani for choosing to retain New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

    “That’s a good sign,” the president said.

    Trump: “A lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m okay with that”

    Mamdani pointed out that Mr. Trump’s vote share in New York City jumped last year, which he attributed mostly to worries about affordability. And the mayor-elect noted that he swept up some Trump voters, which the president appreciated.

    “He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m okay with that,” the president said.

    “I think he’s different than your typical guy”

    Mr. Trump, for his part, praised Mamdani for the former state legislator’s unexpected come-from-behind victory in the Democratic primary.

    “He came out of nowhere,” said the president. “I watched. I said, ‘Who is this guy?’”

    Left unmentioned were the parallels with Mr. Trump’s own insurgent victory in the 2016 Republican primary.

    Asked why Mamdani has drawn so much enthusiasm, Mr. Trump said: “I think he’s different than your typical guy, runs, wins, becomes mayor maybe and nothing exciting.”

    At another point, Mr. Trump called being mayor a “big deal,” saying, “one of the things I would’ve loved to be someday is the mayor of New York City.”

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  • Trump and Mamdani find common ground after trading barbs for months

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    After trading barbs for months, President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani struck a remarkably different tone when they spoke to reporters in the Oval Office following their White House meeting. Nancy Cordes has details.

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  • Watch full video of Trump-Mamdani meeting as president says they

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    After trading barbs for months through social media and the press, President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani stuck a remarkably different tone when they spoke to reporters Friday afternoon for about 30 minutes in the Oval Office following their much-anticipated White House meeting.

    In a surprising shift, the two were positive and often complimentary, with Mr. Trump saying that Mamdani “can do some things that I think are gonna be really great,” and adding that his meeting with the 34-year-old mayor-elect “surprised” him.

    “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” the president said of Mamdani, a democratic socialist whom the president had previously referred to as “a communist lunatic.”

    Both reiterated that while they have their differences, they also found areas of agreement on addressing the issue of affordability.

    “That’s where I am really looking forward to delivering with New Yorkers in partnership with the president on the affordability agenda,” Mamdani said.   

    “You know, we had some interesting conversation, and some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have,” Mr. Trump said. “…He wants to see no crime, he wants to see housing being built, he wants to see rents coming down — all things that I agree with,” though he added, “we may disagree on how we get there.”

    The two leaders also answered questions on topics including the situation in Gaza and the war in Ukraine. Watch their full remarks in the video player on this page. 

    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Trump shake hands during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 21, 2025. 

    Yuri Gripas / Abaca / Bloomberg via Getty Images


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  • Trump Gushes Over Mamdani at White House: Live Updates

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    In a development almost certainly motivated by the election of Zohran Mamdani, and perhaps even timed to coincide with Mamdani’s White House meeting with Donald Trump, the U.S. House for the second time passed a non-binding resolution condemning the “horrors of socialism.” As with an earlier resolution passed in 2023, the resolution cites atrocities committed by communist regimes over the decades, adds in the post-communist Maduro regime in Venezeula, and then in a huge bait-and-switch identifies all these bad actors with “socialism” writ large.

    The New York Post quoted Staten Island Republican congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis as saying: “Let me educate our colleagues on the other side of the aisle: socialism is communism-light.” That is, to put it bluntly, a historically illiterate lie. The battle against 20th-century communism featured vast numbers of democratic socialists, beginning with the last non-communist leader of Russia, Alexander Kerensky; the bulk of European social democrats between the October Revolution and World War II; the democratic-socialist parties that governed Western Europe on-and-off throughout the Cold War; and the democratic-socialist international labor movement that rigorously opposed communism in all its manifestations.

    It’s disgraceful that 86 House Democrats voted for this resolution, which gives a stamp of approval to the ongoing MAGA practice of labeling the self-same Democratic Party’s leaders as “communists” (a label Donald Trump repeatedly applied to the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris). It also promotes ignorant or malicious misinformation at a time when understanding of history is more important than ever.

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  • Watch: President Trump and Zohran Mamdani speak from Oval Office

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    Watch: President Trump and Zohran Mamdani speak from Oval Office – CBS News









































    Watch CBS News



    President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spoke to reporters at the Oval Office on Friday. Mr. Trump said he’s “very confident” in Mamdani and said they share some of the same ideas.

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  • Donald Trump jokes with Zohran Mamdani about being called “fascist, despot”

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    President Donald Trump on Friday laughed off New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s past descriptions of him as a “despot” and a “fascist,” turning what could have been a tense moment into a brief display of banter during their much-anticipated Oval Office meeting.

    When a reporter pressed Mamdani about calling Trump a despot, the president interjected with a grin:

    “I’ve been called much worse than a despot. So it’s not that insulting.”

    Moments later, as Mamdani began explaining their political differences after previously referring to Trump as a fascist, Trump cut in again, smiling and patting him on the arm: “That’s OK, you can just say it — I don’t mind.”

    This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow. 

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  • Mamdani dodges question on socialism vote ahead of high-stakes meeting with Trump

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani seemed to dodge a question about the House voting in favor of a resolution condemning socialism ahead of his high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump.

    As he was arriving in Washington, D.C., Mamdani was asked what he thought about the vote, and he replied, “Brother, I can tell you all I’ve been thinking about is preparing for this meeting and speaking up for New Yorkers.”

    On Friday, the House passed a resolution condemning socialism just hours before the self-identified democratic socialist Mamdani was to arrive at the White House. The resolution passed 285-98, with 86 Democrats joining Republicans, including House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who endorsed Mamdani. Two Democrats, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., and Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., voted present.

    New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani accepts an endorsement from the United Bodegas of America in the Bronx, N.Y., Oct. 29, 2025.  (Deirdre Heavey/Fox News Digital)

    86 DEMS VOTE WITH REPUBLICANS TO CONDEMN SOCIALISM IN WAKE OF MAMDANI’S MAYORAL VICTORY

    “Resolved by the House of Representatives that Congress denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States,” the text reads.

    Trump previously referred to Mamdani as a “communist lunatic,” while the mayor-elect vowed to “Trump-proof” New York City. However, the two have cooled their rhetoric about one another in recent days ahead of their meeting. 

    Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani

    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani exits a news conference at City Hall Park in New York City Nov. 20, 2025.  (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

    NYC MAYOR-ELECT MAMDANI SAYS HE’LL WORK WITH TRUMP ‘TO MAKE LIFE MORE AFFORDABLE’ DESPITE POLICY CLASHES

    On Friday, Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade he anticipated the meeting would be “quite civil” and that they would “get along fine” despite their differences. The president said he and Mamdani want the same thing, “want to make New York strong.”

    Zohran Mamdani delivers victory speech on Election night with his banner behind him.

    Zohran Mamdani delivers a victory speech at a mayoral election night watch party Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City.  (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

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    The mayor-elect told reporters on Thursday that while he has “many disagreements” with the president, he will “work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers.”

    “If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say something,” Mamdani added.

    Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

    Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

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  • What Trump and Mamdani have said about each other ahead of their White House meeting

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    Washington — President Trump has called Zohran Mamdani “my little communist mayor.” Mamdani has vowed to “Trump-proof” New York City. Today, after months of heated rhetoric on both sides, the president and the mayor-elect of the nation’s biggest city will meet for the first time at the White House.

    Mamdani, a democratic socialist, doesn’t have much in common politically with the Republican president. But he called the meeting “an opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers” and said he plans to discuss economic security and public safety. 

    “I’ll be ready for whatever happens,” Mamdani said. 

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday, “President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people.”

    Mamdani used similar language, saying his team reached out to set up the meeting “because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call this city home.”

    But often, their words for each other have been more combative.

    Mr. Trump, who grew up in Queens and built his business career in New York City, has decried the incoming mayor as “a communist lunatic.” Mamdani has blasted the president’s immigration raids and economic policies.

    Here’s a sampling of what the two men have said about each other: 

    Trump has leaned into calling Mamdani a “communist”

    The president has repeatedly referred to Mamdani, a self-identifying democratic socialist, as a communist. He’s called him “my little communist mayor” and a “communist lunatic.” 

    “Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” Mr. Trump posted in June.

    “I don’t know what it is, but we have to win the midterms otherwise all of the things that we’ve done, so many of them are going to be taken away by the radical left lunatics,” the president said ahead of Election Day. “I mean, we’re going to end up with a communist mayor in New York, can you believe it, a communist? Remember, I would always say we will not have a socialist elected in our country.”

    Trump has suggested Mamdani, a naturalized citizen, may be in the country illegally 

    President Trump — who spent years promoting “birther” conspiracies about President Obama — has suggested that Mamdani isn’t in the country legally, despite Mamdani being a naturalized U.S. citizen. Mamdani was born in Uganda and moved to New York City with his family at age 7. He gained citizenship in 2018. 

    “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” he said of Mamdani this summer. “We’re going to look at everything.”

    The president has also floated the possibility of arresting Mamdani if he tries to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting and deporting people. If that happens, the president said, “Well then, we’ll have to arrest him.”

    Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from New York City

    Before Mamdani’s election, Mr. Trump urged New Yorkers to vote for his rival, former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and threatened to pull federal funding from New York City if Mamdani were mayor. 

    “If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home,” said Mr. Trump, who spent most of his life in New York before changing his primary residency to Florida in 2019.

    The Trump administration’s efforts to pull federal funding for projects in blue cities and states during the government shutdown has been met with resistance in court. 

    But after Mamdani won, the president sounded like he might take a different approach. 

    “We’ll help them,” Mr. Trump said. “We want New York to be successful. We’ll help them a little bit, maybe.”

    Trump said Jews who vote for Mamdani are “stupid”

    The president said during the campaign that any Jews who vote for Mamdani are “stupid” because of Mamdani’s positions on Israel and support for Palestinian statehood. 

    “Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!” the president wrote. 

    Mamdani has said his views were often misrepresented. “And frankly, I think much of it has to do with that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election,” he said during the last debate. 

    Trump said “Mamdani, or whatever the hell his name is”

    Speaking at the America Business Forum in Miami on Nov. 5, Mr. Trump brought up Mamdani while talking about the subject of transgender athletes.

    “How about the weightlifting? 218 pounds by a woman, that’s a lot to lift over your head. 218 pounds, or whatever, was the record. A man beat the record by 100 pounds. It stood for, like, 17 years or something. A man beat the record by 100 pounds. He was a failed male weightlifter, but as a female, he did very well,” Trump said, mimicking a weightlifter. “People are crazy.”

    “And Mamdani, whatever the hell his name is, in New York. He thinks it’s wonderful to have men playing in women’s sports,” Mr. Trump said. 

    Mamdani has said he’s ready to challenge Trump

    On the campaign trail, Mamdani was highly critical of the president’s immigration crackdown. He’s also suggested the president and his administration are looking out for the rich. 

    During his victory speech, Mamdani spoke directly to the president: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!” he said to a cheering crowd. 

    “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said.

    Mamdani said he won’t be intimidated by the president. 

    “His threats are inevitable,” Mamdani said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” the morning after his victory. “This has nothing to do with safety, it has to do with intimidation.”

    Mamdani has also made the argument that Mr. Trump’s policies have made life more expensive for New Yorkers. 

    “The Trump administration continues to find new ways to raise costs on all of us,” he said. 

    Mamdani criticized “transphobic bigotry” from Trump administration 

    After current New York Mayor Eric Adams suggested revising school bathroom policies, Mamdani tweeted, “Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration.”

    “It’s completely at odds with the values of our city,” he added.

    Mamdani said Trump wants to have him “arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported” 

    In a social media post in July, Mamdani said Mr. Trump “just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported” over Mamdani’s objections to Mr. Trump’s deportation policies. 

    “His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you,” Mamdani wrote. “We will not accept this intimidation.”

    Mamdani said he’ll work with Trump on any agenda item that benefits New Yorkers

    Mamdani says he’ll work with the president on any agenda item that benefits New York City residents. 

    “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers,” he said in a press availability. “If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”

    Sara Cook

    contributed to this report.

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  • NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani set to meet with President Trump at White House today

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    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is set to meet with President Trump at the White House on Friday afternoon, where he plans to discuss affordability and public safety with the president. 

    The outcome of the meeting could be hugely consequential for the future of New York City. There’s a lot on the line — from funding for infrastructure projects, to setting parameters around immigration enforcement and, perhaps most importantly, Mamdani needs federal security clearance to be briefed on terror threats and other law enforcement activity.

    The mayor-elected shared a photo on social media Friday morning that appeared to show him on board a plane to D.C.

    “I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers”

    The high stakes meeting comes after months of public hostility between the two. Mr. Trump strongly opposed Mamdani during the mayoral campaign, even threatening to arrest and deport him. Mamdani has accused the president of acting like an authoritarian, and Mr. Trump has called the mayor-elect a “communist.”

    “I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call this city home,” Mamdani said Thursday.   

    Mamdani, who vowed to “Trump-proof” the city on election night, said he reached out to the president to set up the sit-down meeting.

    “I have many disagreements with the president, and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker,” Mamdani went on to say. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers.”

    Can they find common ground?

    Mr. Trump has slammed Mamdani for months, falsely labeling him a “communist” when he’s a democratic socialist. 

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seemed to indicate Thursday that her boss still had reservations about the 34-year-old mayor-elect. 

    “I think it speaks volumes that we have a communist coming to the White House, because that’s who the Democrat party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country,” she said. 

    It’s unclear if the two leaders will be able to find any common ground, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — who has tried to forge a working relationship with the president, despite major policy disagreements — thinks it’s possible. 

    “Let’s get the Gateway Tunnel finished. Let’s work on our subway system, money that we need here in the city. And also just the conversation about how it is not necessary to send in the National Guard, because crime is going down dramatically,” she said.

    Friday’s meeting is set for 3 p.m. at the Oval Office. Neither camp has revealed exactly what they will discuss. 

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  • Trump and Mamdani meet Friday in the Oval Office amid sharp exchanges

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    President Donald Trump has called New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and a “total nut job.” Mamdani has called Trump’s administration “authoritarian” and described himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”So their first-ever meeting, scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. EST at the White House, could be a curious and combustible affair.Despite months of casting each other as prime adversaries, the Republican president and new Democratic star have also indicated an openness to finding areas of agreement that help the city they’ve both called home.Mamdani, a democratic socialist who takes office in January, said he sought the meeting with Trump to talk about ways to make New York City more affordable. Trump has said he may want to help him out — although he has also falsely labeled Mamdani as a “communist” and threatened to yank federal funds from his hometown.But for both men, the meeting offers opportunities beyond any areas of potential bipartisan agreement.The two men are convenient political foils for each other, and taking the other one on can galvanize their supporters.Trump loomed large over the mayoral race this year, and on the eve of the election, endorsed independent candidate and former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the city has “ZERO chance of success, or even survival” if Mamdani won. He also questioned the citizenship of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, and said he’d have him arrested if he followed through on threats not to cooperate with immigration agents in the city.Mamdani beat back a challenge from Cuomo, painting him as a “puppet” for the president, and said he would be “a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver.” He declared during one primary debate, “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in.”The president, who has long used political opponents to fire up his backers, predicted Mamdani “will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party.” As Mamdani upended the Democratic establishment by defeating Cuomo and his far-left progressive policies provoked infighting, Trump repeatedly has cast Mamdani as the face of Democratic Party.For Mamdani, a sit-down with the president of the United States offers the state lawmaker who until recently was relatively unknown the chance to go head-to-head with the most powerful person in the world.The meeting gives Trump a high-profile chance to talk about affordability at a time when he’s under increasing political pressure to show he’s addressing voter concerns about the cost of living.But that’s if the meeting doesn’t turn rocky.A chance for some Oval Office dramaIt was not immediately clear whether cameras will be allowed into the meeting. Trump’s daily schedule said it will be private, but the president often invites in a small “pool” of reporters at the last minute.The president has had some dramatic public Oval Office faceoffs this year, including an infamously heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March. In May, Trump dimmed the lights while meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and played a four-minute video making widely rejected claims that South Africa is violently persecuting the country’s white Afrikaner minority farmers.A senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said Trump had not put a lot of thought into planning the meeting with the incoming mayor — but said Trump’s threats to block federal dollars from flowing to New York remained on the table.Mamdani said Thursday that he was not concerned about the president potentially trying to use the meeting to publicly embarrass him and said he saw it as a chance to make his case, even while acknowledging “many disagreements with the president.”If the president does use the meeting as a public confrontation, Mamdani may be uniquely ready for it.He, like Trump, was a relative political outsider who rose to victory with a populist message that promised a break from the establishment, known for his savvy navigation of the spotlight and a distinctive use of social media.Mamdani, who lives in Queens — where Trump was raised — also has shown a cutthroat streak. During his campaign, he appeared to borrow from Trump’s playbook when he noted during a televised debate with Cuomo that one of the women who had accused the former governor of sexual harassment was in the audience. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.The moment evoked Trump’s tactics before a debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he appeared with accusers of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who denied the accusations against him.___Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump has called New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and a “total nut job.” Mamdani has called Trump’s administration “authoritarian” and described himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”

    So their first-ever meeting, scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. EST at the White House, could be a curious and combustible affair.

    Despite months of casting each other as prime adversaries, the Republican president and new Democratic star have also indicated an openness to finding areas of agreement that help the city they’ve both called home.

    Mamdani, a democratic socialist who takes office in January, said he sought the meeting with Trump to talk about ways to make New York City more affordable. Trump has said he may want to help him out — although he has also falsely labeled Mamdani as a “communist” and threatened to yank federal funds from his hometown.

    But for both men, the meeting offers opportunities beyond any areas of potential bipartisan agreement.

    The two men are convenient political foils for each other, and taking the other one on can galvanize their supporters.

    Trump loomed large over the mayoral race this year, and on the eve of the election, endorsed independent candidate and former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the city has “ZERO chance of success, or even survival” if Mamdani won. He also questioned the citizenship of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, and said he’d have him arrested if he followed through on threats not to cooperate with immigration agents in the city.

    Mamdani beat back a challenge from Cuomo, painting him as a “puppet” for the president, and said he would be “a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver.” He declared during one primary debate, “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in.”

    The president, who has long used political opponents to fire up his backers, predicted Mamdani “will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party.” As Mamdani upended the Democratic establishment by defeating Cuomo and his far-left progressive policies provoked infighting, Trump repeatedly has cast Mamdani as the face of Democratic Party.

    For Mamdani, a sit-down with the president of the United States offers the state lawmaker who until recently was relatively unknown the chance to go head-to-head with the most powerful person in the world.

    The meeting gives Trump a high-profile chance to talk about affordability at a time when he’s under increasing political pressure to show he’s addressing voter concerns about the cost of living.

    But that’s if the meeting doesn’t turn rocky.

    A chance for some Oval Office drama

    It was not immediately clear whether cameras will be allowed into the meeting. Trump’s daily schedule said it will be private, but the president often invites in a small “pool” of reporters at the last minute.

    The president has had some dramatic public Oval Office faceoffs this year, including an infamously heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March. In May, Trump dimmed the lights while meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and played a four-minute video making widely rejected claims that South Africa is violently persecuting the country’s white Afrikaner minority farmers.

    A senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said Trump had not put a lot of thought into planning the meeting with the incoming mayor — but said Trump’s threats to block federal dollars from flowing to New York remained on the table.

    Mamdani said Thursday that he was not concerned about the president potentially trying to use the meeting to publicly embarrass him and said he saw it as a chance to make his case, even while acknowledging “many disagreements with the president.”

    If the president does use the meeting as a public confrontation, Mamdani may be uniquely ready for it.

    He, like Trump, was a relative political outsider who rose to victory with a populist message that promised a break from the establishment, known for his savvy navigation of the spotlight and a distinctive use of social media.

    Mamdani, who lives in Queens — where Trump was raised — also has shown a cutthroat streak. During his campaign, he appeared to borrow from Trump’s playbook when he noted during a televised debate with Cuomo that one of the women who had accused the former governor of sexual harassment was in the audience. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.

    The moment evoked Trump’s tactics before a debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he appeared with accusers of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who denied the accusations against him.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.

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  • Mamdani ‘not concerned’ about walking into a Trump trap as he plans to talk about the ‘affordability crisis’ | Fortune

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    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that he’s “not concerned” his upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump could be a political trap, vowing instead to center the Oval Office sit-down on how they could work to make the city more affordable.

    Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, is set to travel to Washington for a meeting with Trump on Friday, a potentially explosive pairing of polar-opposite politicians who have been at odds for months.

    At a news conference outside New York City Hall, Mamdani said he hopes to “share the facts about the affordability crisis in the city” while waving off the idea that the president could use the meeting to embarrass him.

    “I have many disagreements with the president and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that can make our city affordable for every single New Yorker,” he said.

    Mamdani won a stunning victory in New York City’s mayoral race this month with a campaign heavily focused on the city’s affordability crisis, promising to turn the power of government toward helping the working class while also fighting back against a hostile Trump administration.

    Trump has railed against Mamdani for months, warning that his hometown would slide into chaos under the young progressive’s leadership and suggested he would withhold federal money from the city if Mamdani won. Trump has also incorrectly called him a communist and has threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda but became a naturalized American citizen in 2018.

    The president announced the meeting in a social media post Wednesday night, putting Mamdani’s middle name Kwame in quotation marks while incorrectly referring to him as the “Communist Mayor of New York City.”

    Mamdani brushed off the idea that he was walking into an adversarial sit-down with Trump, telling reporters Thursday: “I’m not concerned about this meeting. I view this meeting as an opportunity to make my case, and I’ll make that case to anyone.”

    When pressed further, Mamdani said he’d make it clear to the president that he was there as an emissary of the city, not simply a political newcomer.

    “For me, it’s not about myself. It’s about a relationship between New York City and the White House, the president, and the federal administration. And I will look to make clear my interest goes beyond any one of an individual but it’s for the people I look to represent,” he said.

    When asked if he intended to bring up the president’s threats of stepped-up immigration enforcement in New York, Mamdani tried to pivot back to his affordability argument.

    “I think affordability was at the core of our campaign, and also it was affordability based on the value of protecting each and every New Yorker,” he said. “That means protecting them from price gouging in their lives, but it also means protecting them from ICE agents and making it clear that I will look to representing every single person.”

    Mamdani will take office as mayor next year, succeeding current Mayor Eric Adams, who has been traveling abroad and posted a picture on X Thursday morning of himself alongside an Uzbek official.

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  • Zohran Mamdani says White House meeting with President Trump will highlight affordability concerns

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    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he plans to focus on affordability when he meets with President Trump Friday at the White House. 

    Mamdani held a news conference Thursday morning at City Hall Park, a day after Mr. Trump announced the upcoming meeting between them. Many wonder if the high-stakes discussion will diffuse the tension between the two leaders who have openly criticized each other. 

    The mayor-elect called it “an opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers,” and said he also plans to discuss economic security and public safety. 

    Affordability top of the agenda

    New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference at City Hall Park on November 20, 2025.

    ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images


    “I will be heading to Washington, D.C. tomorrow to meet with President Trump at the White House. It is customary for the mayor of this city to meet with the White House, given their mutual reliance,” Mamdani said Thursday morning. “It is more critical than ever, given the national crisis of affordability — one that New Yorkers know very well across these five boroughs — and the specific challenge many cities are facing with balancing public safety against steps taken by this administration.”

    The mayor-elect said his team reached out to set up the meeting, “because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call this city home.”

    As for potential disagreements?

    “I have many disagreements with the president, and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker,” he continued. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”

    Mamdani says he’ll seek common ground

    Mamdani said New Yorkers may see the meeting as one between “two very different candidates who they voted for for the same reasons.”

    “They wanted a leader who would take on the cost of living crisis that makes it impossible for working people to afford living in this city,” he added. 

    After Mr. Trump’s 2024 election victory, Mamdani said he spoke with people in neighborhoods with the biggest swings toward Republican candidates — Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Road in the Bronx. 

    “When I asked those New Yorkers who they voted for and why, I met many who voted for President Trump, and they told me it was the affordability crisis, it was cost of living, cost of living, cost of living,” he said. “They said that they remembered being able to afford their rent, their child care, their Con Ed, their public transit more four years ago than they could in that moment.”

    Mamdani said that’s something he and the president have in common.

    “We ran a campaign focused on the same thing: Cost of living. And what we found, actually, is that 1 in 10 New Yorkers who voted for Trump ended up voting for our campaign, and they did so because they’re looking for leaders to actually deliver on the cost of living crisis,” Mamdani said. 

    “An opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers”

    CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer asked Mamdani how he feels heading into the White House meeting. He told reporters he’s not concerned and views it as an opportunity. 

    “This is an opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers, and it’s a case that reflects what New Yorkers are having to live through at this time,” he told Kramer. 

    He pointed to 1 in 4 New Yorkers living in poverty and 1 in 5 struggling to afford the $2.90 bus fare. 

    “New Yorkers for whom the daily acts of live are becoming increasingly harder to afford,” he continued. “And that’s an opportunity I have to make the case to President Trump, to the White House, as to what it means to have to suffer through this affordability crisis and what it means to make it even more difficult to do so.”

    Mamdani was asked whether he expects to face any negativity from the president or from other lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trump has been a vocal critic of the democratic socialist, previously calling him a “communist” and threatening to withhold federal funding. 

    “Being a New Yorker means that you’re prepared for all situations, all kinds of comments, all kinds of commentary,” Mamdani replied Thursday. “At the end of it, the focus has to be, what’s the case that you’re making, why are you there? And for me, it’s not about myself, it’s not about a relationship with an individual, it’s about a relationship between New York City and the White House, the president, the federal administration.”

    It’s important the two strike up a relationship for a number of reasons, Kramer reported. It’s not only about federal aid or threats from White House border czar Tom Homan to send more ICE agents into the city. Mamdani will need a federal security clearance in order to be briefed on terror threats and other law enforcement matters, and the president could hold the key to that. 

    Mamdani on disagreements with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch

    The mayor-elect’s remarks followed Wednesday’s announcement that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has agreed to stay on as leader of the police department. 

    “Every commissioner should be a fierce advocate for those that work for their department or their agency, and I look forward to ensuring that that is the case across the entirety of my administration — where, when I have a meeting with the commissioners, I know that they are bringing forth the concerns of those that they work with, those they represent, so we can make sure we are actually addressing them,” Mamdani told reporters Thursday. 

    He added any disagreements they may have “are actually signs of a healthy relationship.”

    “Too often mayors and leaders are looking to surround themselves with people who are characterized by the quickness with which they can say yes, as opposed to the quickness with which they can tell you their honest opinion,” he said.

    As Mamdani’s transition team continues to take shape, he’s asking his supporters to help fundraise $4 million for transition-related expenses. 

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  • President Trump to host New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at White House on Friday

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    President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will have a meeting at the White House on Friday, the president said Wednesday in a post on Truth Social.

    Mr. Trump said the meeting will take place at the Oval Office, with “further details to follow.” Mamdani’s team confirmed the meeting.

    “As is customary for an incoming mayoral administration, the Mayor-elect plans to meet with the President in Washington to discuss public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over one million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago,” a spokesperson for Mamdani said in a statement.

    The president announced earlier this week that they would meet in Washington, but they had not set a date for the meeting at that time.

    Mr. Trump often spoke out against Mamdani in the months leading up to the mayoral election, frequently calling the democratic socialist a “communist.” In his post announcing Friday’s meeting, he referred to the mayor-elect as “Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani.”

    The president endorsed independent candidate Andrew Cuomo one day before Election Day and repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani was elected.

    After Mamdani’s victory, Mr. Trump said in an interview on Fox News that while he doesn’t want to “make [Mamdani] succeed, I want to make the city succeed.”

    Mamdani also often slammed Mr. Trump and his administration during his campaign, even calling out the president during his Election Night victory speech.

    He did, however, also express a willingness to work with the president after his election win. He said his team reached out to the White House to set up the meeting.

    “I want to just speak plainly to the president about what it means to actually stand up for New Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city,” Mamdani said in an interview on MS NOW Wednesday evening.

    Adi Guajardo

    contributed to this report.

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  • Eric Adams warns NYC ‘not fine’ after Mamdani’s win, says if he was Jewish he’d be worried for his children

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    Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned Jewish New Yorkers about the city’s incoming democratic socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani during a fireside chat at a Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) event in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

    Adams cautioned that “everything is not fine” for Jewish New Yorkers following Mamdani’s win and expressed concern about their safety and well-being.

    The outgoing mayor began a multi-day visit to Israel on Friday, meeting with political leaders and visiting sites related to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack. Adams was honored for his efforts in combating rising antisemitism at the CAM summit in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

    JEWISH STUDENTS ‘SCARED’ AFTER MAMDANI WINS NYC MAYOR RACE, CALLING IT ‘HUGE BLOW’

    NYC Mayor Eric Adams warned that “everything is not fine” for Jewish New Yorkers following mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s win. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; Adam Gray/Bloomberg)

    When asked about the safety of Jews living in the city after Mamdani takes office in 2026, Adams responded: “We need to be honest about the moment and cannot sugarcoat it. The New York Jewish community must prepare themselves. This is a period where you need to be conscious about the level of global hostility towards the Jewish community. If I were a Jewish New Yorker, I would be concerned about my children.”

    Pressed again, Adams repeated his warning, telling the audience: “Everything is not fine. If you say everything is fine, you are setting yourself up for failure.”

    Adams, who ran for a second term in 2025 as an independent under the “End Antisemitism” line, discussed the sharp rise of antisemitism and its growing social acceptance — particularly among younger people.

    ADL LAUNCHES ‘MAMDANI MONITOR’ TO TRACK NYC MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI OVER ANTISEMITISM CONCERNS

    The outgoing mayor warned that “It is now cool and hip to be antisemitic,” and that an entire generation has been “hijacked” via social media.

    “They hijacked our young people. Their plan was well executed. Now we need a professional plan to fight back,” he asserted.

    Zohran Mamdani delivers victory speech on Election night with his banner behind him.

    Zohran Mamdani delivers his victory speech during a mayoral election-night watch party on Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

    On the Israeli side, Adams argued that supporters had not effectively countered the anti-Israel camp’s emotional appeals, which relied on images from war-torn Gaza. He added that “the Zohrans of the world” had helped fuel rising anger toward Israel.

    Adams also called out “Queers for Palestine” protesters, arguing that the group’s premise makes no sense because “the only place you can walk around in the Middle East being queer is Israel.”

    ADL CHIEF WARNS NYC MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI POSES A ‘CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER’ TO JEWISH COMMUNITY

    He similarly went after the “Free Palestine” movement, alleging that the movement “was never about the land,” but rather the “the destruction and eradication of Jewish people.”

    Drawing a parallel to his own community, Adams asked: “If this were happening to the African-American community, you would not be silent. So why are others silent now?”

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams leaving an NYC event.

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks with attendees as he leaves an event on Jan. 30, 2025, in New York City. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

    Closing his remarks at the CAM event, Adams assured the audience that although he may be leaving office, he would not stop fighting for the Jewish community.

    “I’m not just the mayor that’s leaving office; I’m your brother. And we will continue to stand side-by-side with you because you were there for our community time and time again, and I’m going to be here for your community,” he pledged.

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    Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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  • Leaders push against proposed corporate tax hike in NYS | Long Island Business News

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    THE BLUEPRINT:

    • officials unite to challenge a in New York State.

    • The plan could raise the corporate rate from 7.25% to 11.5%, matching New Jersey.

    • Leaders warn it could drive businesses and jobs out of New York.

    Long Island leaders have formed a business and political coalition to fight a proposed corporate tax increase in New York State that would raise the rate from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent. The hike would harm the metropolitan region and beyond, local business leaders and elected officials said Monday.

    “This is bad for , this is bad for Long Island, this is bad for the metropolitan region, and this is bad for New York State,” , the Nassau County executive, told reporters at a news conference in Mineola on Monday. “We are going to fight very hard against it.

    “This tax increase on corporations will be passed along to consumers, and many businesses will say they’ve had enough in New York State,” Blakeman said. “They’ll leave, and they’ll take their jobs with them.”

    The coalition was formed just days after , the New York City-mayor elect met with , the New York State governor, according to Politico. Mamdani ran on a platform to ease cost-of-living strains in the city and included no-cost daycare centers, publicly owned supermarkets and free city-bus service.

    To do that, the mayor-elect suggested raising income taxes on the top 1 percent of New Yorkers, as well as raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent, which would put New York on par with New Jersey, according to published reports. The corporate tax hike, officials say, is under consideration by Hochul.

    Hochul said Monday that any tax increase would depend on what happens in Washington, D.C. in the coming months.

    The suggested corporate tax increase comes at a time when other states are ranked higher in terms of . North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Virgina and Ohio were ranked as some of the top states in the nation for business, according to a July report from CNBC. That study put New York at 23, and New Jersey at 30.

    At the current rate, a $5 million-revenue business pays $362,500 in New York and $805,000 in New York City, Nassau officials said. Under the proposal, corporations would pay $575,000 outside New York City and more than $1 million in the city – an increase that Nassau officials warn would drive businesses out of New York.

    “The business community here has been stressed, has been punched in the gut numerous times, and here’s another” proposed tax hike, said Matt Cohen, president and CEO of Long Island Association, the region’s largest business group.

    “We have an affordability crisis in this country, but nowhere is it more acute than here on Long Island,” Cohen said. “And when you’re driving out businesses, when you’re driving out jobs, that’ going to make it worse, not better.”

    Cohen said this path makes for a “less-friendly business environment,” adding that it wasn’t a Republican or a Democratic issue.

    “When you’re talking about increasing taxes, that’s the opposite of smart , planning, smart business growth, and we need to band together because we all share the same objective,” Cohen said. “We want a strong economy. We want to create jobs, we want a more affordable place to live, but we can’t do that if we keep sending a message to the business community that they’re not welcome here.”

    Kyle Strober, executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island, said that the “proposed tax increase is potentially devastating to our region’s economy.

    “Long Island, whose economy is closely aligned with New York City, is already confronting multiple challenges,” he said. “Recent demographic trends reveal that such a tax increase extension will only serve to drive away additional businesses and high-income earners, who pay the majority of the state’s tax revenue.  When this occurs, the tax burden will be shifted to Long Island’s hard working middle class.  This tax proposal will mock any effort to make New York more affordable for our middle class, a long-stated goal of Albany leadership.”

    On Monday, Hochul pointed out at a press conference that her budget director has said that “things are better than we expected at this point because New York City businesses are doing well, and that is the generator of most of our revenues.”

    Still, she said, “we don’t have a clear line of sight to know what our challenges are going to be or are the challenges not as great as anticipated.”

    She added, “I don’t know what Washington is going to do. Are they going to try and jam us up for another $3 billion in Medicaid costs? This is the uncertainty which makes it challenging to do what we’re doing.”

    Hochul said her response about corporate taxes at this moment is vague “because we don’t have all the information.”

    Meanwhile, Blakeman said that if corporations leave the region because of rate hike, it would hurt local small businesses – the coffee shops, diners and others that serve these organizations.

    Blakeman said that lowering the corporate tax rate to 5 percent “would make us much more competitive throughout the United States.”


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    Adina Genn

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  • Trump Suggests He’s Open to Meeting Mamdani

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    Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images

    Throughout the mayoral race, President Donald Trump frequently voiced his strong opposition to Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy, threatening to withhold federal funding from the city if he won and going as far as to endorse the Democratic nominee’s main opponent, former governor Andrew Cuomo. But on Sunday, Trump appeared to express at least some openness toward the mayor-elect, suggesting the two men could meet at some point in the near future while the White House press secretary clarified that no date had been set, per the Associated Press.

    “The mayor of New York, I will say, would like to meet with us and we’ll work something out. He would like to come to Washington and meet,” Trump said. “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”

    Trump’s comment also comes amid a renewed focus by him and his administration on affordability following Democrats’ sweeping nationwide victories on Election Day.

    The dynamic between Mamdani and Trump has long been tense with the mayor-elect linking his message about affordability to the president’s handling of the economy and with Mamdani promising to combat Trump’s administration’s targeted actions against the city. In turn, Trump has incorrectly denounced the democratic socialist as a “communist,” threatened a federal takeover of the city, and signaled Mamdani could be subject to arrest if he intervenes with federal immigration actions. In his victory speech, the mayor-elect signaled that standing in Trump’s way and protecting the city’s immigrants will be a priority of his administration.

    “New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” he said. “So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

    During an appearance on Fox News in October, Mamdani made his most public overture to Trump yet, speaking directly to the camera to tell the president he is willing to work with the administration for the betterment of the city. “I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail. I won’t be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own. I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living. That’s the way that I’m going to lead this city,” he said. “That’s the way the partnership I want to build not only with Washington, D.C., but with anyone across this country.”

    The first potential test of Mamdani’s relationship with Trump is on the horizon. As noted by Politico, the federal government will have to grant the mayor-elect a security clearance prior to being sworn in to office. But throughout his second term Trump has weaponized the process, revoking the clearances for some of his most prominent political foes including state attorney general Letitia James, former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, and former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney.

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    Nia Prater

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  • Naturalized US citizens thought they were safe. Trump’s immigration policies are shaking that belief

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    NEW YORK (AP) — When he first came to the United States after escaping civil war in Sierra Leone and spending almost a decade in a refugee camp, Dauda Sesay had no idea he could become a citizen. But he was told that if he followed the rules and stayed out of trouble, after some years he could apply. As a U.S. citizen, he would have protection.

    It’s what made him decide to apply: the premise — and the promise — that when he became a naturalized American citizen, it would create a bond between him and his new home. He would have rights as well as responsibilities, like voting, that, as he was making a commitment to the country, the country was making one to him.

    “When I raised my hand and took the oath of allegiance, I did believe that moment the promise that I belonged,” said Sesay, 48, who first arrived in Louisiana more than 15 years ago and now works as an advocate for refugees and their integration into American society.

    But in recent months, as President Donald Trump reshapes immigration and the country’s relationship with immigrants, that belief has been shaken for Sesay and other naturalized citizens. There’s now fear that the push to drastically increase deportations and shift who can claim America as home, through things like trying to end birthright citizenship, is having a ripple effect.

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    What they thought was the bedrock protection of naturalization now feels more like quicksand.

    Illinois State Police stand guard as people including members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)

    Illinois State Police stand guard as people including members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)

    What happens if they leave?

    Some are worried that if they leave the country, they will have difficulties when trying to return, fearful because of accounts of naturalized citizens being questioned or detained by U.S. border agents. They wonder: Do they need to lock down their phones to protect their privacy? Others are hesitant about moving around within the country, after stories like that of a U.S. citizen accused of being here illegally and detained even after his mother produced his birth certificate.

    There has been no evidence of an uptick in denaturalizations so far in this Trump administration. Yet that hasn’t assuaged some. Sesay said he doesn’t travel domestically anymore without his passport, despite having a REAL ID with its federally mandated, stringent identity requirements.

    Immigration enforcement roundups, often conducted by masked, unidentifiable federal agents in places including Chicago and New York City, have at times included American citizens in their dragnets. One U.S. citizen who says he was detained by immigration agents twice has filed a federal lawsuit.

    Adding to the worries, the Justice Department issued a memo this summer saying it would ramp up efforts to denaturalize immigrants who’ve committed crimes or are deemed to present a national security risk. At one point during the summer, Trump threatened the citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, who naturalized as a young adult.

    The atmosphere makes some worried to speak about it publicly, for fear of drawing negative attention to themselves. Requests for comment through several community organizations and other connections found no takers willing to go on the record other than Sesay.

    In New Mexico, state Sen. Cindy Nava says she’s familiar with the fear, having grown up undocumented before getting DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protected people brought to the U.S. as children from being deported — and gaining citizenship through her marriage. But she hadn’t expected to see so much fear among naturalized citizens.

    “I had never seen those folks be afraid … now the folks that I know that were not afraid before, now they are uncertain of what their status holds in terms of a safety net for them,” Nava said.

    What citizenship has meant, and who was included, has expanded and contracted over the course of American history, said Stephen Kantrowitz, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said while the word “citizen” is in the original Constitution, it is not defined.

    “When the Constitution is written, nobody knows what citizenship means,” he said. “It’s a term of art, it comes out of the French revolutionary tradition. It sort of suggests an equality of the members of a political community, and it has some implications for the right to be a member of that political community. But it is … so undefined.”

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)

    American immigration and its obstacles

    The first naturalization law passed in 1790 by the new country’s Congress said citizenship was for any “free white person” of good character. Those of African descent or nativity were added as a specific category to federal immigration law after the ravages of the Civil War in the 19th century, which was also when the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution to establish birthright citizenship.

    In the last years of the 19th century and into the 20th century, laws were put on the books limiting immigration and, by extension, naturalization. The Immigration Act of 1924 effectively barred people from Asia because they were ineligible for naturalization, being neither white nor Black. That didn’t change until 1952, when an immigration law removed racial restrictions on who could be naturalized. The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act replaced the previous immigration system with one that portioned out visas equally among nations.

    American history also includes times when those who had citizenship had it taken away, like after the 1923 Supreme Court ruling in U.S. vs. Bhagat Singh Thind. That ruling said that Indians couldn’t be naturalized because they did not qualify as white and led to several dozen denaturalizations. At other times, it was ignored, as in World War II, when Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps.

    “Political power will sometimes simply decide that a group of people, or a person or a family isn’t entitled to citizenship,” Kantrowitz said.

    In this moment, Sesay says, it feels like betrayal.

    “The United States of America — that’s what I took that oath of allegiance, that’s what I make commitment to,” Sesay said. “Now, inside my home country, and I’m seeing a shift. … Honestly, that is not the America I believe in when I put my hand over my heart.”

    ___

    This story has been corrected to reflect that Dauda Sesay is 48 years old, not 44.

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  • How Lina Khan is busy striving to maximize Mamdani’s power

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    Lina Khan has quickly thrown water on any hopes that she might be a benign force on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team. The former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair suggested in a recent interview that she’s looking to make sure Mamdani can “unilaterally deploy” ample power as mayor.

    Khan is “exploring ways to maximize…Mamdani’s executive authority through little-used laws already in place,” as Bloomberg put it.

    “Exploring ways to maximize executive authority” is a scary enough phrase no matter who the executive in question is. But it’s got a particularly chilling ring when applied to Mandami, a Democratic Socialist who has said there’s no problem too minor for the government to get involved in, and Khan, who spearheaded some of the Biden administration’s worst efforts to disrupt free markets with heavy-handed government intervention, repeatedly tested the limits of FTC power, and attempted to do through an executive agency things that should have been left to Congress.

    In a recent interview with Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor, Khan made it clear that she envisions Mamdani’s New York City as a place where the mayor can wield ample unchecked power.

    “I’m gonna be especially focused on things like ‘how do we make sure that we have a full accounting of all of the laws and authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy?’” Khan said in the interview, which was taped last week but won’t air in full until November 23. She went on to talk about how her time at the FTC taught her there were “unused and underused” powers that she could wield, and she wanted to find out the full extent of authority that would be possible for Mandami as mayor.

    With Khan’s influence, we can expect the future Mamdani mayoral administration to get creative—and, perhaps, unconstitutional—in its application of existing laws and authorities to enact Mamdani’s agenda, which includes things like city-run grocery stores, free child care and bus rides, nearly doubling the minimum wage, and a freeze on raising rents.

    Much of Mamdani’s agenda would require acquiescence from state government authorities, which may make enacting it a stretch.

    Khan apparently isn’t phased. “A lot of what he is going to be looking to deliver is going to be requiring working closely with other institutional actors, be it the governor, be it the legislature, but he should also have a lot of ability to do things unilaterally,” she told Vietor.

    She also seems intent on taking elements of the Biden administration’s failed agenda to the Big Apple. “Khan is planning to look at recently-enacted and proposed legislation and regulations affecting algorithmic price discrimination, surveillance pricing and junk fees,” Bloomberg reports.

    And, of course, no Khan operation would be complete without a little bit of absolutely overreaching antitrust policy.

    At the FTC, Khan went after tech platforms and other companies “under novel theories of harm,” notes Liz Hoffman at Semafor. “In her new role, Khan has identified an early avenue in a 56-year-old NYC prohibition on business practices deemed ‘unconscionable’—a designation expansive enough to delight any regulator.”

    This could include targeting stadiums for selling high-price concessions, Hoffman reports. (No problem too small for government action, indeed.)

    If Khan’s influence takes hold, we can expect from the future Mamdani administration not just big meddling in significant aspects of city life but also the sort of low-grade authoritarianism we saw attempted under Biden, who rallied against the way cable bills were formatted and airline ticket fees were displayed.

    Using the might power of the state to make stadium hot dogs cheaper is a perfect distillation of the sort of petty populism that Khan has come to be known for—and Mamdani may, alas, be angling to adopt as NYC mayor.

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    Elizabeth Nolan Brown

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  • Democrats are hopeful again. But unresolved questions remain about party’s path forward

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — For a day, at least, beleaguered Democrats are hopeful again. But just beneath the party’s relief at securing its first big electoral wins since last November’s drubbing lay unresolved questions about its direction heading into next year’s midterm elections.

    The Election Day romp of Republicans stretched from deep-blue New York and California to swing states Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. There were signs that key voting groups, including young people, Black voters and Hispanics who shifted toward President Donald Trump’s Republican Party just a year ago, may be shifting back. And Democratic leaders across the political spectrum coalesced behind a simple message focused on Trump’s failure to address rising costs and everyday kitchen table issues.

    The dominant performance sparked a new round of debate among the party’s establishment-minded pragmatists and fiery progressives over which approach led to Tuesday’s victories, and which path to take into the high-stakes 2026 midterm elections and beyond. The lessons Democrats learn from the victories will help determine the party’s leading message and messengers next year — when elections will decide the balance of power in Congress for the second half of Trump’s term — and potentially in the 2028 presidential race, which has already entered its earliest stages.

    People cheer as Democrat Abigail Spanberger walks out on stage after she was declared the winner of the Virginia governor’s race during an election night watch party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

    “Of course, there’s a division within the Democratic Party. There’s no secret,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference about the election results.

    Sanders and his chief political strategist pointed to the success of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a model for Democrats across the country. But Rep. Suzan Del Bene, who leads the House Democrats’ midterm campaign strategy, avoided saying Mamdani’s name when asked about his success.

    Del Bene instead cheered the moderate approach adopted by Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in successful races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey as a more viable track for candidates outside of a Democratic stronghold like New York City.

    “New York is bright blue … and the path to the majority in the House is going to be through purple districts,” she told The Associated Press. “The people of Arizona, Iowa and Nebraska aren’t focused on the mayor of New York.”

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely Democratic presidential prospect who campaigned alongside Democrats in several states leading up to Tuesday’s elections, noted the candidates hit on a common issue that resonated with voters, regardless of location.

    “All of these candidates who won in these different states were focused on peoples’ everyday needs,” Shapiro said. “And you saw voters in every one of those states and cities showing up to send a clear message to Donald Trump that they’re rejecting his chaos.”

    Intraparty criticism

    Amid Democrats’ celebratory phone calls and news conferences, members of the party’s different wings had some sharp critiques for each other.

    While Shapiro cheered the party’s success during a Wednesday interview, he also acknowledged concerns about Mamdani in New York.

    Shapiro, one of the nation’s most prominent Jewish elected leaders, said he’s not comfortable with some of Mamdani’s comments on Israel. The New York mayor-elect, a Muslim, has described Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks as “genocide” against the Palestinian people and has been slow to condemn rhetoric linked to anti-Semitism.

    “I’ve expressed that to him personally. We’ve had good private communications,” Shapiro said of his concerns. “And I hope, as he did last night in his victory speech, that he’ll be a mayor that protects all New Yorkers and tries to bring people together.”

    Meanwhile, Sanders’ political strategist, Faiz Shakir, warned Democrats against embracing “cookie cutter campaigns that say nothing and do nothing” — a reference to centrist Democrats Spanberger and Sherrill.

    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat who defeated democratic socialist Omar Fateh to win a third term, said at a news conference Wednesday that “we have to love our city more than our ideology.”

    “We need to be doing everything possible to push back on authoritarianism and what Donald Trump is doing,” Frey said. “And at the same time, the opposite of Donald Trump extremism is not the opposite extreme.”

    Signs welcomes voters on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Del Mar, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

    Signs welcomes voters on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Del Mar, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

    Democrats win everywhere

    Despite potential cracks in the Democratic coalition, it’s hard to understate the extent of the party’s electoral success.

    In Georgia, two Democrats cruised to wins over Republican incumbents in elections to the state Public Service Commission, delivering the largest statewide margins of victory by Democrats in more than 20 years.

    In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept not only three state Supreme Court races, but every county seat in presidential swing counties like Bucks and Erie Counties, including sheriffs. Bucks County elected its first Democratic district attorney as Democrats there also won key school board races and county judgeships.

    Maine voters defeated a Republican-backed measure that would have mandated showing an ID at the polls. Colorado approved raising taxes on people earning more than $300,000 annually to fund school meal programs and food assistance for low-income state residents. And California voters overwhelmingly backed a charge led by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw its congressional map to give Democrats as many as five more House seats in upcoming elections.

    Key groups coming back to Democrats

    Trump made inroads with Black and Hispanic voters in 2024. But this week, Democrats scored strong performances with non-white voters in New Jersey and Virginia that offered promise.

    About 7 in 10 voters in New Jersey were white, according to the AP Voter Poll. And Sherrill won about half that group. But she made up for her relative weakness with whites with a strong showing among Black, Hispanic and Asian voters.

    The vast majority — about 9 in 10 — of Black voters supported Sherrill, as did about 8 in 10 Asian voters.

    Hispanic voters in New Jersey were more divided, but about two-thirds supported Sherrill; only about 3 in 10 voted for the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli.

    The pattern was similar in Virginia, where Spanberger performed well among Black voters, Hispanic voters and Asian voters, even though she didn’t win a majority of white voters.

    This combination of photos taken on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, shows Abigail Spanberger in Richmond, Va., left, Zohran Mamdani in New York, center, and Mikie Sherrill in East Brunswick, N.J. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, Yuki Iwamura and Matt Rourke)

    This combination of photos taken on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, shows Abigail Spanberger in Richmond, Va., left, Zohran Mamdani in New York, center, and Mikie Sherrill in East Brunswick, N.J. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, Yuki Iwamura and Matt Rourke)

    Democrats will soon face a choice

    The debate over the party’s future is already starting to play out in key midterm elections where Democrats have just begun intra-party primary contests.

    The choice is stark in Maine’s high-stakes Senate race, where Democrats will pick from a field that features establishment favorite, Gov. Jan Mills, and Sanders-endorsed populist Graham Platner. A similar dynamic could play out in key contests across Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Michigan.

    Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is aligned with the progressive wing of the party, said the people he speaks to are demanding bold action to address their economic concerns.

    “Folks are so frustrated by how hard its become to afford a dignified life here in Michigan and across the country,” he said.

    “I’m sure the corporate donors don’t want us to push too hard,” El-Sayed continued. “My worry is the very same people who told us we were just fine in 2024 will miss the mandate.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Mike Catalini in Newark and Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed.

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