Editor’s note: You can follow along with live updates about their Friday meeting here.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he plans to focus on affordability when he meets with President Trump Friday at the White House. It’s scheduled for 3 p.m.
Mamdani held a news conference Thursday morning at City Hall Park, a day after Mr. Trump announced the upcoming meeting between them. Many wonder if the high-stakes discussion will diffuse the tension between the two leaders who have openly criticized each other.
The mayor-elect called it “an opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers,” and said he also plans to discuss economic security and public safety.
“I’ll be ready for whatever happens,” Mamdani said.
Affordability top of the agenda
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images 
“I will be heading to Washington, D.C. tomorrow to meet with President Trump at the White House. It is customary for the mayor of this city to meet with the White House, given their mutual reliance,” Mamdani said Thursday morning. “It is more critical than ever, given the national crisis of affordability — one that New Yorkers know very well across these five boroughs — and the specific challenge many cities are facing with balancing public safety against steps taken by this administration.”
The mayor-elect said his team reached out to set up the meeting, “because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call this city home.”
As for potential disagreements?
“I have many disagreements with the president, and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker,” he continued. “I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.”
Mamdani says he’ll seek common ground
Mamdani said New Yorkers may see the meeting as one between “two very different candidates who they voted for for the same reasons.”
“They wanted a leader who would take on the cost of living crisis that makes it impossible for working people to afford living in this city,” he added.
After Mr. Trump’s 2024 election victory, Mamdani said he spoke with people in neighborhoods with the biggest swings toward Republican candidates — Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Road in the Bronx.
“When I asked those New Yorkers who they voted for and why, I met many who voted for President Trump, and they told me it was the affordability crisis, it was cost of living, cost of living, cost of living,” he said. “They said that they remembered being able to afford their rent, their child care, their Con Ed, their public transit more four years ago than they could in that moment.”
Mamdani said that’s something he and the president have in common.
“We ran a campaign focused on the same thing: Cost of living. And what we found, actually, is that 1 in 10 New Yorkers who voted for Trump ended up voting for our campaign, and they did so because they’re looking for leaders to actually deliver on the cost of living crisis,” Mamdani said.
“An opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers”
CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer asked Mamdani how he feels heading into the White House meeting. He told reporters he’s not concerned and views it as an opportunity.
“This is an opportunity to make the case for New Yorkers, and it’s a case that reflects what New Yorkers are having to live through at this time,” he told Kramer.
He pointed to 1 in 4 New Yorkers living in poverty and 1 in 5 struggling to afford the $2.90 bus fare.
“New Yorkers for whom the daily acts of live are becoming increasingly harder to afford,” he continued. “And that’s an opportunity I have to make the case to President Trump, to the White House, as to what it means to have to suffer through this affordability crisis and what it means to make it even more difficult to do so.”
Mamdani was asked whether he expects to face any negativity from the president or from other lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trump has been a vocal critic of the democratic socialist, previously calling him a “communist” and threatening to withhold federal funding.
“Being a New Yorker means that you’re prepared for all situations, all kinds of comments, all kinds of commentary,” Mamdani replied Thursday. “At the end of it, the focus has to be, what’s the case that you’re making, why are you there? And for me, it’s not about myself, it’s not about a relationship with an individual, it’s about a relationship between New York City and the White House, the president, the federal administration.”
It’s important the two strike up a relationship for a number of reasons, Kramer reported. It’s not only about federal aid or threats from White House border czar Tom Homan to send more ICE agents into the city. Mamdani will need a federal security clearance in order to be briefed on terror threats and other law enforcement matters, and the president could hold the key to that.
CBS News New York asked Mamdani’s team if he planned to meet with other lawmakers in Washington and were told we’ll find out Friday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has tried to forge a working relationship with the president even though they have major policy disagreements, says she thinks the two men will be able to find some common ground.
“Let’s get the Gateway Tunnel finished. Let’s work on our subway system, money that we need here in the city. And also just the conversation about how it is not necessary to send in the National Guard because crime is going down dramatically,” Hochul said.
“We have a communist coming to the White House”
“It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House, because that’s who the Democrat party elected mayor of the largest city in the country,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “I think it’s very telling, but I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone, and talk to anyone, and to try to do what’s right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states or blue cities, and in a city that’s becoming much more left than I think the president ever anticipated in his many years of living in New York itself.”
Leavitt was asked whether Mamdani could convince the president not to cut off funding New York City, as he has threatened.
“We’ll see how the meeting goes tomorrow, and I’ll let for the president speak for himself,” Leavitt said.
Mamdani on disagreements with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch
The mayor-elect’s remarks followed Wednesday’s announcement that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has agreed to stay on as leader of the police department.
“Every commissioner should be a fierce advocate for those that work for their department or their agency, and I look forward to ensuring that that is the case across the entirety of my administration — where, when I have a meeting with the commissioners, I know that they are bringing forth the concerns of those that they work with, those they represent, so we can make sure we are actually addressing them,” Mamdani told reporters Thursday.
He added any disagreements they may have “are actually signs of a healthy relationship.”
“Too often mayors and leaders are looking to surround themselves with people who are characterized by the quickness with which they can say yes, as opposed to the quickness with which they can tell you their honest opinion,” he said.
As Mamdani’s transition team continues to take shape, he’s asking his supporters to help fundraise $4 million for transition-related expenses.
