Mamdani pitches Trump on housing, secures release of Columbia student

By Chris Wade
The Center Square

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured the release of a Columbia student detained by ICE after a surprise meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, where he also urged the president to support a long-stalled housing project in his hometown.

At Thursday’s Oval Office meeting, which wasn’t announced in advance, Mamdani reportedly urged Trump to back the city’s plans to build 12,000 new affordable homes on the site of an old rail yard in Queens by securing more than $21 billion in federal grants.

To win over the president, Mamdani also gifted Trump a mock New York Daily News front page with stories praising the Queens native as a “hometown hero” for providing federal funding for the long-stalled housing project. The banner headline read: “Trump to City” Let’s Build. Backs New Era of Housing.”

The mayor also presented Trump with a copy of the Daily News’ famous Oct. 30, 1975 “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” front page, which lamented Democratic President Gerald Ford’s refusal to bail out New York City during the 1975 financial crisis.

“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon,” Mamdani said in a post on social media that showed the two in the oval office displaying the mock newspapers. “I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City.”

I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon.I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City. pic.twitter.com/XnPbt0KXYU— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) February 26, 2026

After the meeting, Mamdani announced that he had secured the release of Elmina Aghayeva, a Columbia University student who had been detained by ICE earlier in the day. The mayor also reportedly gave White House staff a list of four other New York City students detained by ICE — Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung, Mohsen Mahdawi and Leqaa Kordia — in an effort to get them released.

Thursday’s surprise meeting was another turn in the unlikely ‘bromance’ between Trump and Mamdani, a democratic socialist the president previously threatened to deport. The two Queens men have developed a relationship despite their vast political differences.

Trump held a meeting at the White House about two weeks after Mamdani won the November election, and the two shocked observers by engaging in a cordial conversation and posting photos on social media of the two of them.

In the months ahead of the election, Trump labeled Mamdani a “communist” and warned of the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the 34-year-old former Queens assemblyman was elected. He also claimed Mamdani, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Uganda, was an “illegal alien” and threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding from the city.

Mamdani, meanwhile, vowed on the campaign trail last year to “Trump proof” New York City as mayor, but has also softened his tone since winning City Hall and says he is interested in working with the president and other members of his administration to help New Yorkers.

During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Trump called Mamdani a “nice guy” but criticized his administration for requiring two forms of ID and a Social Security card to get paid by the city for an emergency snow-shoveling program, while rejecting a plan to require ID to vote.

“The new communist mayor of New York City, I think he’s a nice guy, actually” Trump said in Tuesday’s speech at the Capitol. “I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.”