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Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. on Thursday in an unannounced meeting.
Mamdani posted on X, stating the meeting was "productive."
The mayor pitched an affordable housing project at Sunnyside Yard that would bring around 12,000 units to New York City and create 30,000 union jobs. Mamdani says it would be one of the largest federal investments in housing the city has seen in 50 years and would require securing more than $21 billion in federal grants.
Trump and Mamdani agreed to continue discussions in the coming weeks, according to the mayor.
Mamdani also expressed concern to the president about a Columbia student who was detained by ICE on Thursday morning.
The mayor says Trump called him after the meeting and told him the student, Elaina Aghayeva, will be "released imminently."
Mamdani asked the President to consider dismissing the cases of four additional NYC students: Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung, Mohsen Mahdawi and Leqaa Kordia, according to a spokesperson for the mayor.
This is at least the second time the pair has met. The meeting comes two days after Trump commented on Mamdani during the State of the Union, saying the mayor was a nice guy with bad policies.
Trump also mentioned Mamdani’s hiring of emergency snow shovelers after the blizzard.
“They want people to shovel snow...they got hit hard...but if you apply for that job, you have to show two forms of ID and a Social Security card,” Trump said, levying one of his common criticisms regarding election security.
The meeting was not on Mamdani’s public schedule for Thursday, and the city would not provide details on the context of his conversation with Trump.