US President Donald Trump paid a rare visit on Monday to Gracie Mansion, the New York mayor's official residence, where he and Zohran Mamdani agreed to increase talks on a plan for new homes in the city.
Mr Trump, in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, arrived by motorcade at the Upper East Side mansion for private talks with Mr Mamdani, marking another cordial encounter between two politicians from opposing sides of the political spectrum.
“I spent lots of hours there over the years, with some great mayors, some average mayors and some bad mayors,” Mr Trump told reporters.
Housing was a key focus, with Mr Mamdani saying the two discussed plans to develop Sunnyside Yard in Queens and agreed to establish talks between housing and operations officials at City Hall and the White House.
“What we're speaking about is 12,000 homes, 30,000 jobs, the prospect of an entire new neighbourhood, in a city where housing is the number one cost,” Mr Mamdani said.
New York's first Muslim mayor has previously described it as potentially the city's largest housing development since the early 1970s.
Mr Trump struck a warm tone towards Mr Mamdani, telling reporters the visit felt like “a little bit of old home week for me".
“I love New York and this represents New York,” Mr Trump said of Gracie Mansion, praising the residence as a “very, very representative place of New York”.
The two men have publicly criticised each other's policies, but their first meeting at the White House shortly after Mr Mamdani's election in November 2025 was cordial, and they met again privately at the White House in February.
Mr Trump also used the appearance to defend his administration's decision to bar some news organisations from the White House, saying they had an obligation to be fair.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging the restrictions.
“If they're fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house,” Mr Trump said, referring to the White House.
Mr Mamdani's meeting with Mr Trump ended a day of high-level political encounters for the New York Mayor.
Earlier on Monday, he met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the residence of Brazil's mission to the UN on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Mr da Silva, who is also in New York for the General Assembly, told reporters the two discussed challenges facing their countries, including the rising cost of living.
“Since you are a very young person, with many years of life ahead of you, I hope you are prepared to become a great soldier in the struggle to put an end to or reduce poverty, and the invisibility in which the world’s poor people live,” Mr da Silva told Mr Mamdani.
