President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used their third in-person meeting to discuss a $21 billion federal housing proposal and immigration policy as Trump publicly expressed hope that the democratic socialist mayor succeeds in leading the city.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

President Donald Trump offered unusually warm praise for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday after the two met at Gracie Mansion for talks centered on housing, affordability and immigration despite substantial political differences between them.

Trump, who was in New York ahead of his Tuesday address to the United Nations General Assembly, visited the mayor’s official residence for their third face-to-face meeting since Mamdani’s election and their first there since he took office in January. The visit lasted about 90 minutes, with much of that time spent in private discussions, according to the New York Post. The Associated Press described the private conversation as lasting roughly an hour.

Appearing alongside Mamdani afterward, Trump said he wanted the mayor to succeed.

“I certainly hope he will be a great mayor,” Trump told reporters. “You have to understand, I want what’s good for New York. I want what’s good for the country.”

Trump also said Mamdani has “great potential,” while reflecting on his own history with Gracie Mansion and past New York mayors.

“I’ve been at Gracie Mansion, we were discussing, quite a few times over the years, a lot,” Trump said. “And it sort of feels like a home, and it’s a special place, a very special, a beautiful place when you go inside.”

Trump said he had known “some great ones and some not so great ones” among the city’s previous mayors before turning to Mamdani.

“Hopefully, you’re going to be a great one,” Trump said.

The Associated Press reported Trump similarly told Mamdani, “Hopefully you’re going to be a great one,” while patting him on the back, adding, “And you’re off to a start.”

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One of the most consequential subjects discussed Monday was Mamdani’s effort to redevelop Sunnyside Yard in Queens.

The approximately 180-acre rail complex has been considered for major development for decades. Mamdani’s administration is seeking more than $21 billion in federal grants to construct a deck over the rail yard that would support a new neighborhood with 12,000 affordable homes, including 6,000 Mitchell-Lama-style units, as well as parks, schools, health facilities and an estimated 30,000 union jobs.

Mamdani initially presented the proposal directly to Trump during their February meeting at the White House.

“What we’re talking about is something very rare in our city,” Mamdani said Monday. “It’s the possibility of constructing an entirely new neighborhood, and again, it’s only possible with federal partnership.”

The city cannot undertake the project without substantial federal involvement because construction would have to occur over an active rail yard and would require federal approvals, financing arrangements and infrastructure investments. Mamdani’s administration has said the project would represent New York’s largest housing and infrastructure investment in more than 50 years if completed.

Trump stopped short of committing federal money Monday but acknowledged that Washington would have to participate for the project to advance.

“Sunnyside’s a big job. I’ve been watching that for 35 years,” Trump said. “You’re going to need a lot of federal approvals and probably some federal money to do it. But it’s always been a great location.”

The project has remained under discussion between the two administrations since February.

Mamdani said in July that Sunnyside Yard continued to be “the subject of conversations” with the federal government and characterized it as a long-term effort because of the scale of the investment and approvals required.

Housing has become the clearest area of cooperation between two politicians who disagree on numerous national and local issues.

Trump is a Republican who built much of his private-sector career in New York real estate. Mamdani identifies as a democratic socialist and campaigned heavily on affordability, rent and publicly supported housing.

Their relationship was considerably more hostile during the 2025 mayoral campaign, when Trump repeatedly attacked Mamdani’s political positions and Mamdani sharply criticized the president.

That dynamic began changing after Mamdani won the election.

The two first met at the White House following Mamdani’s November victory. The meeting proved substantially more cordial than their campaign rhetoric had suggested.

Mamdani returned to Washington in February to present Trump with a mock newspaper front page reading “Trump to City: Let’s Build” while seeking federal backing for Sunnyside Yard.

Monday’s Gracie Mansion meeting extended that relationship.

Trump said his visit had personal significance because of his longstanding connections to New York City.

“I have a lot of meetings right now, very important meetings with heads of different countries, but this is like a little bit of old home week for me,” Trump said, according to the Associated Press.

Immigration, however, remains a major area of disagreement.

Mamdani said he raised the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies during the meeting, including Temporary Protected Status for immigrants whose protections have been terminated or are at risk of ending.

The mayor specifically raised the situation facing Haitian immigrants and broader concerns about federal immigration enforcement in New York.

“I made very clear this is a priority for me, a priority for our city, and I appreciated the consideration,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani acknowledged after the meeting that the two continue to hold fundamentally different views on immigration.

“The president and I have both been very frank about the many disagreements that we have, and immigration is one of those places,” Mamdani said. “We’ve both spoken about very different approaches, very different beliefs.”

Rather than portraying those disagreements as an obstacle to further discussions, Mamdani said he intends to continue engaging Trump when he believes federal cooperation could produce results for New York.

“I committed over the course of the campaign, as well as while being in office, that I would meet with anyone, work with anyone that could deliver for New Yorkers,” he said.

After Trump departed, Mamdani reiterated the point to reporters.

“I will continue to have conversations with the president, and frankly, anyone who can deliver relief to the people of this city,” he said.

Mamdani and Trump have also maintained communication outside their face-to-face meetings, with the mayor previously saying the two have exchanged text messages.

Trump signaled his interest in Monday’s visit before arriving at Gracie Mansion.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he had spent “lots of hours” at the mayoral residence over the years with “some great Mayors, some average Mayors, and some bad Mayors.”

“It will be interesting to see how it looks now, invited by Mayor Mamdani,” Trump wrote. “Look forward to it. MAKE NEW YORK CITY GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump’s previous appearances at Gracie Mansion included attending former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s wedding there in 2003 and a 2007 book event involving former Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.

The president’s visit came as scores of heads of state and other international officials arrived in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, giving the meeting an unusual place on Trump’s schedule immediately before a series of foreign-policy engagements.

Despite the contrasting political philosophies that defined their exchanges during the mayoral race, the relationship between Trump and Mamdani has increasingly centered on areas where federal and city interests overlap.

For Mamdani, the most significant of those is Sunnyside Yard.

His administration has argued that federal participation is indispensable because New York City cannot independently finance and construct the massive platform necessary to build over one of North America’s busiest rail yards. The original proposal presented to Trump in February sought more than $21 billion in federal grants for the project.

Trump gave no commitment Monday that Washington would provide that amount.

His comments nevertheless left negotiations open, acknowledging both the scale of the development and the federal government’s role in determining whether it can proceed.

The meeting therefore ended with the two officials still divided on immigration and other major policies but continuing discussions on what could become one of the largest housing developments undertaken in New York in decades.

Trump’s parting assessment of the mayor reflected the change in tone since last year’s campaign.

“I certainly hope he will be a great mayor,” Trump said. “You have to understand, I want what’s good for New York. I want what’s good for the country.”

Original article