New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani met President Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday, in an unannounced trip to discuss housing and the detention of a student.
Mr Mamdani said he had a “productive” meeting with the US President. “I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City,” he wrote on social media.
The White House did not confirm the meeting, and did not respond to a request by The National for comment
In a second post, Mr Mamdani said he had spoken with Mr Trump about the detention of a Columbia University student by immigration agents.
“In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elaina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning,” Mr Mamdani wrote. “He has just informed me that she will be released imminently.”
Earlier on Thursday, Columbia University said federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered a Columbia residential building at 6.30am and detained a student under a false pretence.
“Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a 'missing person',” the school wrote in a statement.
Mr Trump, who has enforced strict anti-immigration policies, has sent federal agents across the country to detain and deport migrants, often without due process.
A photo circulating online shows Ms Aghayeva had posted a photo with the words: “DHS illegally arrested me. Please help.”
Mr Trump's policies have become a flashpoint for protests and a point of contention with Democratic rivals. Demonstrators have confronted federal agents during raids across the country, and two Americans have been killed in Minnesota this year.
This was the second White House visit by Mr Mamdani, 34, the Democratic Socialist who took office last month. Mr Trump, a former New Yorker, had frequently called him a “nut job”, among other insults.
He threatened to withhold federal money from the city and to deport Mr Mamdani, the city's first Muslim-American mayor of the city. He was born in Uganda.
But the two leaders have since been able to develop a cordial relationship. During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Mr Trump called him a “nice guy", in a rare compliment.
The leaders met in the White House in November last year, when Mr Trump said the two had more in common than he previously thought.
Mr Mamdani won the mayor's race in a campaign primarily focused on the city’s cost-of-living crisis, promising to lower housing and food costs to help working-class families in New York.
He also vowed to fight against the policies of the Trump administration, including his anti-immigration stance.
