New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani met President Donald Trump to request $21 billion in federal grants for affordable housing and infrastructure.
WASHINGTON: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani met President Donald Trump to request $21 billion in federal grants for affordable housing and infrastructure. The unannounced meeting saw Mamdani present Trump with a mock newspaper front-page headlined “Trump to city: Let’s build”.
The proposed funding would support 12,000 affordable housing units and related infrastructure in a Queens neighborhood. The plan includes new parks, schools and health centres.
Mamdani’s office called the proposal a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to confront the city’s housing crisis at the scale it demands”. The statement added that the project would be the largest housing and infrastructure investment in New York City in over 50 years.
“I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon,” Mamdani wrote in a post on X following the talks. He added that he was “looking forward to building more housing in New York City”.
The two agreed to continue discussions over the project and its funding “in the weeks ahead”. Despite Trump’s past criticism of the mayor, the pair held cordial talks.
Following the meeting, Mamdani said Trump also agreed to release a Columbia University student detained by federal immigration agents earlier that day. The Republican leader and the mayor previously met at the White House in November.