Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good afternoon, everyone. This afternoon, President Trump and I met at Gracie Mansion to discuss the city we both are so fortunate to serve, New York City. Each time the president and I speak, it's about the same topics: how to improve the lives of New Yorkers, and how to use the power of government to take on the cost-of-living crisis, to grow our economy, and to build a better, stronger New York.
Each day, millions of New Yorkers struggle to get by in a city where a decent life costs too much, where a future of possibility and prosperity feels forever just one paycheck out of reach, where dignity is not accorded to all, but only afforded by some.
I have said time and again that I will work with anyone, no matter what party they belong to, no matter how much we may disagree on other topics, whoever has the power and the will to lift that weight off New Yorkers' backs.
At a time where hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are asking the questions of how they can afford this city, I appreciate the conversation the president and I have had on the subject of how we can make it easier to afford life in this great city that we call our home.
With that, we will take questions. Just before, the president, if you want to add any remarks —
President Donald J. Trump: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I've been at Gracie Mansion, we were discussing, quite a few times over the years — a lot. And it sort of feels like a home, and it's a special place, a very special, beautiful place when you go inside. And I've seen it with numerous different mayors. And I said some great ones and some not-so-great ones, so hopefully you're going to be a great one — I'll be able to say you're going to be a great one, and you're off to a start. So, I just want to thank the mayor for the invitation.
I'm in New York to do the United Nations tomorrow. I have a lot of meetings right now. Today, very important meetings with heads of different countries. But this is like a little bit of old home week for me because so many things, we've done so many things from the beautiful home or house or building standing right behind me.
And if you have any questions, we'd love to take them. Thank you.
Question: Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, there aren't too many Democrats who would roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump. You did that today. What tangible results, achievements could you point to from your relationship with the president?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, one of the focuses of the conversation the president and I have been having is about the possibility of building more housing here in New York City. We've spoken about Sunnyside Yard. And it's a real pleasure that, just today, we've agreed to set up a new level of that conversation between our housing and operations team at City Hall and the White House team. Because what we're speaking about is 12,000 homes, 30,000 jobs, the prospect of an entire new neighborhood in a city where housing is the number one cost. And I appreciate the president, his interest in this, and we also know the president not just as the leader of the country but also as someone who has built quite a lot of housing here in our city. I don't know, Mr. President, if you want to add anything.
President Trump: Well, I can tell you that Sunnyside is a big job. I've been watching that for 35 years. Everybody has wanted to do something with Sunnyside Yard. We met at the White House a couple of times. But we met at the White House. The mayor brought that up, the possibility of doing Sunnyside Yard.
It's a very — I would say that was a very federal-oriented job. You're going to need a lot of federal approvals and probably some federal money to do it. But it's always been a great location. I owned a building in Sunnyside. It was a great building. I know it very well. So, when he mentioned Sunnyside Yard, they've been talking about developing that for 50 years. So maybe they have a shot at doing it.
Question: Mr. Mayor, Mr. President. This is the first time that a sitting president has visited Gracie Mansion in decades. Mr. President, on the way here you posted that this is one of your favorite places in the world. Why is that? And, Mr. Mayor, what did you show the president? What did he want to see?
President Trump: Well, I can say from my standpoint I love New York, and this represents New York. This is where the mayor lived and continues to live. We were discussing it a long time ago when you first got elected. I said, well, are you going to move because you were maybe having some doubts about moving in because it is a little bit on the luxurious side.
And I said, when you're the mayor, you have to live there. And he's done that. And it was very nice inside, beautifully kept. But it's a very, very representative place of New York, a very important place.
Mayor Mamdani: We appreciate the president's commitment to the city. And today the president shared many of his memories of having been to Gracie Mansion before, having been out here as well on the lawn. And we appreciated the conversation of how we can work together to deliver a lower cost of living for New Yorkers.
Question: So, Mr. President, you spoke about Sunnyside Yards. Are you committing to supporting that project? And it sounds like you also talked about affordability. You have dismissed that in the past. But that is one of Mayor Mamdani's key agenda items. So, did you talk about affordability? And is there anything you can do for affordability for New Yorkers?
President Trump: Well, I know a lot about affordability because I did that housing. I did many, many low-income and moderate-income buildings over the years and had great success with it. It really was very important.
I would think that Sunnyside would have to have a component, at least a pretty substantial component, of exactly that. So, yeah, we discussed that. If you do Sunnyside, I think you're going to have to have that kind of a component.
Question: Thank you. Mayor, to you first, what's your response to President Trump banning outlets from the White House grounds? Did you challenge him at all about this in your meeting with him? Historians and legal scholars have called it textbook authoritarianism. And, Mr. President, are you banning outlets like MSNOW, CNN and Politico in order to distract from the Iran war and high gas prices?
Mayor Mamdani: I told the president that we're going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn. And that is something that I believe in, is everyone, no matter the opinion or the critique, that we engage.
President Trump: It's interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me. So, I wasn't very worried about that. Look at all that press.
But, no, I'm not — I'm only doing it because I think the press also has an obligation. And, you know, I won in a landslide. I won the election in a landslide. I've done great things. I've done a lot of great things. I've settled eight wars. We have the best economic numbers for the country in the history of our country. We have $21 trillion pouring in. The biggest number ever, any country, was $3 [trillion].
Nobody's ever done what we've done. I never get anything positive. It's always negative. Even having to do with the war. We've done so well. We have total — Look, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. Let me just put it that way. And they're not doing well. They're not doing well.
In fact, I had meetings on it today. They're doing very poorly. You would think that an outlet would write at least reasonably well, but never. If you look at CNN, it's fake news. If you look at MSNOW, I don't even know what MSNOW is. I guess it's the MSNBC, what it used to be, or MSDNC, as some people call it. That's Democrat National Committee.
But it's just biased news. And I think that these outlets have an obligation to be fair. And if they're fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house. This is a special house, Gracie Mansion. Well, the White House is the most special of all houses, I have to say. And I don't even think the mayor would argue with that.
And I think I have an obligation not to let fake news [in]. They're very bad for the country, very bad for national security. So, I have that obligation. So, we'll see how it works out.
Question: Do you want to talk about TPS? A lot of New Yorkers are here on protected status and it's been removed.
President Trump: Well, the mayor feels very strongly about it, I can tell you. And he did bring it up. But he feels very, very strongly about it.
Question: How do you feel? Will you change anything?
President Trump: I feel strongly about a lot of things. I feel strongly about taking care of people. And that's what we do. We're doing a good job of it.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you, Mr. President.
President Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
[Crosstalk.]
Mayor Mamdani: Sorry, just before you go, the president is saying he can answer a couple more questions.
Question: For both of you then. Mr. Mayor, the president said that he hopes that you'll be a great mayor. I wonder what your thoughts are about that? Also tell us what the conversation was around TPS and immigration overall. And also, a question for the president, what made you think about today's, I guess, discussion in your time with the mayor that made you think he was going to be a great mayor or that you hope he's going to be great when you've had so many criticisms for him in the past?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I'll leave it to New Yorkers on your first question to make their judgments. On your second question, as the president said, I shared my very strong opinions about how we can keep New Yorkers safe, how we can keep immigrant New Yorkers safe, and how important immigrant New Yorkers, especially Haitian New Yorkers, are not only to the fabric of our city, but also to our city's economy, to so many of the industries that build our city and the stability that is in the president's hands. And I appreciate the conversation that we had and the consideration to that end. And you had your third question for the president.
President Trump: No, I certainly hope he will be a great mayor. You have to understand, I want what's good for New York. I want what's good for the country. So, if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor or horrible mayor, I don't want that. I want him to be a great mayor, and he certainly got potential, got great potential.
[President Trump exits.]
[Crosstalk.]
Question: Mr. Mayor, can you tell us, you know, now [that] he's not here, so what was your reaction to some of the things he said up there, specifically about TPS? What was the conversation about TPS? Were you in there with Stephen Miller? What was his and Susie Wiles' thought on TPS, a big issue that's happening in this city?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I appreciated the conversation. It was a productive conversation. Stephen Miller was not a part of the conversation. It was myself, the president, Susie Wiles, my chief of staff, Elle Bisgaard-Church, and what I made the case about is just how critical this is to so many New Yorkers and how I hear about this not just from those New Yorkers, not just from their families, but also from their pastors, from developers, from executives in health care and hospitality.
Especially when we're talking about Haitian New Yorkers, we are talking about one of the most critical communities in our city. And when we're talking about the status, we're talking about something that can either deliver or deny stability in their lives and the lives of those who love them. And so, I made very clear this is a priority for me, a priority for our city, and I appreciated the consideration.
Question: I just want to know what went into this meeting. Did you reach out to him? Was this part of your conversation from the last time? And what did you guys do inside? Did you show him around? Did you show him what's new? Did he test out the bidets?
Then also, I just had to ask as well, did you guys also discuss federal funding when it comes to the counterterrorism funding for the NYPD and the missing funding? Hochul had said that she was hoping that you would talk about it.
Mayor Mamdani: We had a wide-ranging conversation. It extended from a conversation around the importance of our Police Department. It went to TPS. It also extended to Sunnyside Yard. And to the first part of your question, I appreciated not only having that conversation with the president, making the case on behalf of New Yorkers. The president also has many memories of Gracie Mansion. He's been here a number of times.
I shared with the president also that I recently learned that he actually got married in the Blue Room at City Hall, which is where many of us spend a lot of our time with press conferences and Q&As.
And with the president sharing the historic nature of this building, not only as it has been home to mayors since Fiorello La Guardia, but also that it has so much of the history of this country. There's a cannonball from the Revolutionary War; there's a fireplace from the residence where Aaron Burr died after his duel with Alexander Hamilton. So, that is all a part of this building as well.
Question: Back to Sunnyside Yard. Twenty-one billion was the number that you all put out before. Is that something you actually think that the federal government will put forward? Did you talk about the kind of dollar amount?
And then also, this is the kind of thing that can get kicked down the road. Are you able to give us any kind of timeline of when you would like to see actual movement on the Sunnyside Yard project?
Mayor Mamdani: We are sincerely interested and committed to this as an idea, which is why it's been the focus of the conversations I've had with the president, not only in this meeting, but also in the prior meeting at the White House. And again, what we're talking about is something very rare in our city. It's the possibility of constructing an entirely new neighborhood.
And again, it's only possible with federal partnership because of not only the scale of funding required, but also the authorization in constructing a platform that would then serve as the foundation for about 12,000 homes, about 30,000 jobs, and it would be transformative, not only in terms of working people who could create this, but also, and be paid enough to be able to afford to live in the city, but also working people who could actually live in a neighborhood that today is, is a train yard.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: I wanted to ask you a little bit about how this meeting came about. Could you tell us a little more? Did you invite him? You know, did you expect to have certain things addressed while here? Did you have a sort of agenda before meeting him when he came here? And then the second question is, Hakeem Jeffries was strongly criticized for meeting with Jared Kushner, president's adviser. Do you think you should be criticized for taking time to meet with the president?
Mayor Mamdani: Look, I think the — I said this in my opening remarks — that I committed over the course of the campaign, as well as while being in office, that I would meet with anyone, work with anyone that could deliver for New Yorkers. And in the previous meetings I've had with President Trump, we've been able to secure the release of a New York City college student who had been detained by ICE. We've been able to move forward what has been a longstanding dream about the construction of Sunnyside Yard.
And we know we have a significant way to go, but these meetings do truly assist in that path. And to me, the question always is: how can we deliver for the city? How can we deliver for the people of the city? And so having a conversation about potentially building 12,000 homes, about the importance of our Haitian neighbors here in this city, are conversations that are worthwhile to have.
And to the first question, this was part of a conversation I was having with the president, and I invited the president to come to Gracie Mansion. And he had also remarked to me in prior conversations about how many memories he has of this as a home for prior mayors. And I thought it would be a good location for a continuation of the conversation of how to deliver for the people who are being priced out of the city.
Question: Two questions. You said that you're taking the conversation about Sunnyside Yard to the next level. Can you give us any detail about what that means? I mean, you've already brought the plan to him before. So, what does the next level mean?
Mayor Mamdani: So, the conversations have been continuing about this project. What today we made an agreement on was that the conversation would now be elevated to a place where it's going to also be technical between our housing teams, our operations teams and the White House. And that is critically important because, as you heard earlier from the question from Crain's, yes, there's an aspect of this that is about financing. There's also an aspect of this about technical and legal authorization of the construction of a platform. That's what this kind of a conversation facilitates.
Question: And then my second question. I think a lot of people see your strategy around the president, curbing criticism of him. I feel like you don't often launch personal attacks against him. You don't talk about how often you speak or what you speak about when we typically ask you at press conferences.
And I think a lot of people see that as a way to kind of avoid incurring his wrath in a way. Especially with immigration enforcement. But we've seen since January that ICE arrests have increased since you became mayor.
So, I'm wondering, do you still think that this tactic is worth it to sort of take a softer touch with the president in exchange for maybe sparing New York City more enforcement? And is there a point where this no longer makes sense for you?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, the president and I have both been very frank about the many disagreements that we have. And immigration is one of those places. We've both spoken about very different approaches, very different beliefs. And I will continue to have conversations with the president and, frankly, with anyone who can deliver relief to the people of this city.
And to me, you know, in the past meeting, at the meeting we spoke about Sunnyside Yard, we introduced that conversation. Thirty minutes after the last meeting, he called me to let me know that the list of students that we had put forward to him, that he was going to release one of them. Soon after that, he released another one of them.
And frankly, if a meeting can be the difference between detention and dignity, it's a meeting worth taking. All while being honest about the disagreements that we do have. Thank you all very much.
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