New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is walking a careful line between courting the Trump administration and advancing a tax policy the president has publicly scorched.
In an NBC News interview marking his first 100 days in office, Mamdani described his working relationship with Trump as "honest, direct and productive." He credited their rapport partly to shared roots in New York, noting that Trump's lifelong connection to the city gives him what Mamdani called "an investment" in its success.
"Our conversations are not just of the scale that is typical with the president, but also granular about even the things as specific as zoning law changes in midtown Manhattan," Mamdani said, adding that the two have met in the Oval Office at least twice since his election last November.
Yet that relationship hit visible strain when Trump fired back at Mamdani's marquee tax proposal. The president attacked the mayor and Governor Kathy Hochul's pied-a-terre tax on properties worth over $5 million owned by non-residents, calling Mamdani a force "DESTROYING New York" and blasting what he termed excessive taxation.
"The president and I both want this city to succeed. This is how you do it," Mamdani responded Friday, pushing back without rancor.
The pied-a-terre tax sits at the heart of Mamdani's early agenda. He says it would generate $500 million to fund priorities including expanded free child care, one of his central campaign planks. He has already moved aggressively on that front.
In March, Mamdani and Hochul announced a $1.2 billion child care expansion. They launched free child care for 2-year-olds and are committed to making the same available to every 2-year-old across all five boroughs by the end of his first term.
The mayor is also advancing another campaign promise: opening city-run grocery stores aimed at cutting food costs. He announced the first such store would open in East Harlem, with plans for one store in each borough. These shops would guarantee prices on essential items like bread and eggs, which Mamdani said have spiked faster in New York City than nationally.
On public transit, Mamdani acknowledged a stalled campaign promise to make all city buses free. One bus route currently runs free, and he said his administration is working with state officials to carve out budget space for expansion before rolling out full citywide service. The effort has been hampered by the city's $5.4 billion budget deficit.
Mamdani used his relationship with Trump to concrete effect in at least one case. He mentioned to the president during an Oval Office meeting that an ICE detention of a Columbia University student, Elmina Aghayeva, was part of a broader pattern he had documented. Within 30 minutes of the meeting, Trump called back to say he had ordered her release.
"I think we see in those decisions the worth of a relationship that is both honest and direct," Mamdani said.
When asked about fulfilling all his campaign promises, the mayor sidestepped concerns about timelines. "I've always been hopeful of getting two terms, and I've always said to New Yorkers that we would accomplish everything with however much time that we get," he said.
On the national political stage, Mamdani deflected questions about Democratic Party dynamics, saying his focus is local results and the 2026 midterms. "I think that New Yorkers are tired of politicians pontificating about other politicians. What they want to see are results, and that's why my focus has been more on potholes than on politics."
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Mamdani is betting that courting Trump on personal terms can buy him space to pursue liberal policies Trump hates, but that gamble gets harder the more he tries to tax the wealthy Trump protects."
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