New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani seemed to deflect late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s questions about his relationship with President Donald Trump, as the mayor avoided bashing him and rejected the late-night host’s request to send him a selfie.
“Did you guys hit it off immediately or is it something that you really went into thinking, like, ‘OK, I need to have a relationship with the president of the United States and I think the best way to do it is to charm him?’ How did you do that and can you help me?” Kimmel asked Mamdani, calling his relationship with Trump “unexpected.”
Mamdani responded, “Sorry, brother.”
The mayor told Kimmel he and the president had many disagreements, but agreed on how much they both love New York City.
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“And so, from that first meeting in November of last year, I was just thinking of, ‘How can we make this meeting not about us, but about New Yorkers? How can we spend that time talking about the things that could make life in the city that little bit easier?’ And that’s what it’s been whether we’ve met at the White House or at Gracie Mansion,” he said.
Mamdani and the president met earlier this month at the mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, despite the major policy differences the two have.
“The number one thing that we’ve been speaking about recently has been Sunnyside Yard, which is this idea for decades of building a platform over a rail yard and then building 12,000 homes. And so, in that moment, you know, that you zoomed in on, I’m just thinking about 12,000 homes, 30,000 jobs, largest housing development since the early 1970s,” Mamdani told Kimmel.
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Kimmel asked, “When you text him about Sunnyside, are you sure he doesn’t think you’re texting him about eggs?”
Mamdani said he was “pretty sure” and noted that the texts were pretty normal and didn’t resemble the president’s Truth Social posts.
“Wow. You really have broken through with him,” Kimmel said. “I mean listen, you seem to be doing a great job in New York.We might need you to move to Washington just hang out at the Oval Office all day. Like if you texted him a selfie of us right now.”
Mamdani laughed and shut it down.
“I love you, but I love housing more,” Mamdani responded.
Kimmel went on to ask if Mamdani would come be the mayor of Los Angeles at the end of the discussion.
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The White House did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Trump first met with the socialist mayor last November and said Mamdani could “surprise some conservative people” and declared, “The better he does, the happier I am.”
Their last meeting, on Feb. 26 at the Oval Office, was notably cordial, with Mamdani seeking Trump’s support for an ambitious New York housing proposal despite their political differences.
“The new communist mayor of New York City, I think he’s a nice guy, actually,” Trump said in his State of the Union address in February. “I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.”
