Zohran Mamdani says White Home assembly with President Trump will spotlight affordability considerations

New York Metropolis Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he plans to concentrate on affordability when he meets with President Trump Friday on the White Home. It is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Mamdani held a information convention Thursday morning at Metropolis Corridor Park, a day after Mr. Trump introduced the upcoming assembly between them. Many marvel if the high-stakes dialogue will diffuse the strain between the 2 leaders who’ve overtly criticized one another. 

The mayor-elect referred to as it “a chance to make the case for New Yorkers,” and mentioned he additionally plans to debate financial safety and public security. 

“I will be prepared for no matter occurs,” Mamdani mentioned. 

Affordability high of the agenda

“I can be heading to Washington, D.C. tomorrow to fulfill with President Trump on the White Home. It’s customary for the mayor of this metropolis to fulfill with the White Home, given their mutual reliance,” Mamdani mentioned Thursday morning. “It’s extra vital than ever, given the nationwide disaster of affordability — one which New Yorkers know very effectively throughout these 5 boroughs — and the particular problem many cities are dealing with with balancing public security towards steps taken by this administration.”

The mayor-elect mentioned his staff reached out to arrange the assembly, “as a result of I’ll work with anybody to make life extra reasonably priced for the greater than 8.5 million individuals who name this metropolis residence.”

As for potential disagreements?

“I’ve many disagreements with the president, and I consider that we must be relentless and pursue all avenues and all conferences that would make our metropolis reasonably priced for each single New Yorker,” he continued. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I’ll work with him on any agenda that advantages New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I may also be the primary to say so.”

Mamdani says he’ll search frequent floor

Mamdani mentioned New Yorkers might even see the assembly as one between “two very completely different candidates who they voted for for a similar causes.”

“They needed a pacesetter who would tackle the price of residing disaster that makes it unattainable for working folks to afford residing on this metropolis,” he added. 

After Mr. Trump’s 2024 election victory, Mamdani mentioned he spoke with folks in neighborhoods with the most important swings towards Republican candidates — Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Highway within the Bronx. 

“Once I requested these New Yorkers who they voted for and why, I met many who voted for President Trump, they usually advised me it was the affordability disaster, it was price of residing, price of residing, price of residing,” he mentioned. “They mentioned that they remembered with the ability to afford their hire, their baby care, their Con Ed, their public transit extra 4 years in the past than they may in that second.”

Mamdani mentioned that is one thing he and the president have in frequent.

“We ran a marketing campaign centered on the identical factor: Price of residing. And what we discovered, really, is that 1 in 10 New Yorkers who voted for Trump ended up voting for our marketing campaign, they usually did so as a result of they’re searching for leaders to really ship on the price of residing disaster,” Mamdani mentioned. 

“A possibility to make the case for New Yorkers”

CBS Information New York’s Marcia Kramer requested Mamdani how he feels heading into the White Home assembly. He advised reporters he isn’t involved and views it as a chance. 

“This is a chance to make the case for New Yorkers, and it is a case that displays what New Yorkers are having to stay via at the moment,” he advised Kramer. 

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

“New Yorkers for whom the each day acts of stay have gotten more and more more durable to afford,” he continued. “And that is a chance I’ve to make the case to President Trump, to the White Home, as to what it means to must undergo via this affordability disaster and what it means to make it much more troublesome to take action.”

Mamdani was requested whether or not he expects to face any negativity from the president or from different lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trump has been a vocal critic of the democratic socialist, beforehand calling him a “communist” and threatening to withhold federal funding. 

“Being a New Yorker signifies that you are ready for all conditions, every kind of feedback, every kind of commentary,” Mamdani replied Thursday. “On the finish of it, the main target needs to be, what is the case that you just’re making, why are you there? And for me, it is not about myself, it is not a couple of relationship with a person, it is a couple of relationship between New York Metropolis and the White Home, the president, the federal administration.”

It is vital the 2 strike up a relationship for plenty of causes, Kramer reported. It isn’t solely about federal help or threats from White Home border czar Tom Homan to ship extra ICE brokers into town. Mamdani will want a federal safety clearance so as to be briefed on terror threats and different regulation enforcement issues, and the president may maintain the important thing to that. 

CBS Information New York requested Mamdani’s staff if he deliberate to fulfill with different lawmakers in Washington and have been advised we’ll discover out Friday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has tried to forge a working relationship with the president though they’ve main coverage disagreements, says she thinks the 2 males will be capable to discover some frequent floor. 

“Let’s get the Gateway Tunnel completed. Let’s work on our subway system, cash that we’d like right here within the metropolis. And likewise simply the dialog about how it’s not essential to ship within the Nationwide Guard as a result of crime goes down dramatically,” Hochul mentioned. 

“We have now a communist coming to the White Home”

“It speaks volumes that tomorrow we’ve got a communist coming to the White Home, as a result of that is who the Democrat occasion elected mayor of the most important metropolis within the nation,” White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned. “I believe it’s totally telling, however I additionally suppose it speaks to the truth that President Trump is keen to fulfill with anybody, and discuss to anybody, and to attempt to do what’s proper on behalf of the American folks, whether or not they stay in blue states or crimson states or blue cities, and in a metropolis that is changing into way more left than I believe the president ever anticipated in his a few years of residing in New York itself.” 

Leavitt was requested whether or not Mamdani may persuade the president to not minimize off funding New York Metropolis, as he has threatened.

“We’ll see how the assembly goes tomorrow, and I will let for the president communicate for himself,” Leavitt mentioned. 

Mamdani on disagreements with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch

The mayor-elect’s remarks adopted Wednesday’s announcement that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has agreed to remain on as chief of the police division. 

“Each commissioner must be a fierce advocate for people who work for his or her division or their company, and I stay up for guaranteeing that that’s the case throughout the whole lot of my administration — the place, when I’ve a gathering with the commissioners, I do know that they’re bringing forth the considerations of people who they work with, these they symbolize, so we are able to be certain that we are literally addressing them,” Mamdani advised reporters Thursday. 

He added any disagreements they might have “are literally indicators of a wholesome relationship.”

“Too typically mayors and leaders want to encompass themselves with people who find themselves characterised by the quickness with which they’ll say sure, versus the quickness with which they’ll inform you their sincere opinion,” he mentioned.

As Mamdani’s transition staff continues to take form, he is asking his supporters to assist fundraise $4 million for transition-related bills.