New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani touted his active collaboration with President Donald Trump despite their partisan differences on certain issues, especially the Iran war.
Speaking on Thursday’s broadcast of CBS Mornings about his first 100 days in office, Mamdani provided viewers a glimpse into his unlikely relationship with Trump.
“I would say the two of us are in touch,” he said. “We’ve had a number of meetings now in the Oval Office, and we are honest [and] direct about the fact that we have many disagreements.”
The mayor has visited Trump at the White House twice since the democratic socialist won the New York City election last fall. In February, the two discussed how they could work together on building more housing for New Yorkers. Mamdani posted a photo of himself and Trump, who held a newspaper mockup that credited him for delivering 12,000 homes. That appeared to be the number of new housing units they discussed.
While housing was the purpose of that meeting, Mamdani asked Trump to facilitate the release of a Columbia University student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After the meeting, Trump agreed to release her.
It remains to be seen whether their professional, cordial relationship lasts. It could possibly be undermined by hot-button issues on foreign policy.
During the interview, Mamdani discussed his opposition to Trump’s military operation in Iran.
“I’m deeply opposed to the war. I think it’s something that should be opposed, not just on a political level or an economic level, but frankly, a moral level,” he told CBS Mornings.
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The mayor said his opinion about the Iran war is “no secret” and that he is “very honest” with the president about that point of disagreement.
“We’ve had a conversation about a number of issues, and that includes our disagreements on foreign policy,” he added. “I’ll keep the frequency and the nature of those conversations private because that’s the premise of them, but I will tell you that in those conversations, it is one that is driven by actually being candid.”
Supporters of both men were shocked by how friendly relations seemed to be between the two, given their different political stances. However, Mamdani touched on the reason they are able to get along: “There is one place of agreement that we have, which is that we both love New York City.”