President Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sat down at Gracie Mansion on Monday for their third face-to-face meeting since Mamdani's election win — and Trump walked away praising the democratic socialist's “great potential,” even as the two publicly clashed over Trump's ban on three news outlets.
Why it matters: Trump and Mamdani are about as unlikely a political pairing as exists in Washington right now — a press-feuding Republican president and a Democratic Socialists of America-backed mayor — yet they keep finding room to negotiate on housing money even as their sharpest disagreements, especially on immigration, remain unresolved.
Driving the news:
Monday’s Gracie Mansion sit-down, held during Trump’s New York visit for UN General Assembly week, was the pair’s third in-person meeting since Mamdani’s November 2025 election win, following a November Oval Office meeting and a February 26 White House follow-up. Fox News reports it’s become a recurring feature of an otherwise combative relationship.
Mamdani used the session to press Trump for more than $21 billion in federal grants to help build 12,000 affordable homes at Sunnyside Yard in Queens.
At a joint appearance afterward, Mamdani said he’d invited “all of the members of the press” to cover the meeting on the lawn — a pointed contrast with Trump’s Friday ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House pool coverage. Fox News has the exchange.
Trump defended the ban on the spot, telling reporters “if you look at CNN, it’s fake news” and that the outlets are “very bad for national security,” while insisting “they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me.”
By the numbers:
3rd — in-person meeting between Trump and Mamdani since November 2025.
$21 billion+ — federal housing grants Mamdani is seeking for Sunnyside Yard.
12,000 — affordable homes planned for the project.
2,100+ — arrests made in ICE’s “Operation Rotten Apple” in New York, the backdrop to the pair’s ongoing immigration dispute.
What they’re saying: Trump, at his February State of the Union: “The new communist mayor of New York City, I think he’s a nice guy, actually. I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.” After Monday’s visit, Trump told reporters Mamdani has “great potential.” Mamdani, on inviting reporters Trump has banned: “I told the president that we’re going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn.”
The other side: Mamdani has been anything but deferential on policy substance. He believes ICE should be abolished, and his administration joined a lawsuit challenging Trump’s new “public charge” immigration rule, which Mamdani says “not only sweeps aside more than a century of established law” but “is intentionally vague as a means of creating uncertainty and fear.” The rapport also draws grumbling from both flanks: some conservatives question why Trump is cozying up to a self-described socialist, while some progressives are wary that friendly photo-ops undercut resistance to the same administration’s immigration enforcement playing out in the mayor’s own city.
What's next:
Trump returns to Washington Wednesday to host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit.
Mamdani’s $21 billion-plus Sunnyside Yard funding request remains pending, with no federal decision announced.
The bottom line: Housing money keeps buying Trump and Mamdani a working relationship that the rest of their politics — especially immigration, and now press access — says shouldn’t exist.
Go deeper:
Fox News: Trump, Mamdani set to meet again on mayor's home turf after months of political whiplash
Fox News: Mamdani tells Trump banned White House outlets are welcome at NYC meeting
Fox News: Zohran Mamdani meets Trump at Gracie Mansion for third time Monday
Washington Examiner: Trump says Mamdani has 'great potential' at mayor's mansion