‘You’re a going to be an incredible one’: Trump tells Mamdani he has ‘potential’ to be an incredible mayor

The two mentioned Sunnyside Yards, Temporary Protected Status for Haitian New Yorkers, and press entry, whereas buying and selling heat phrases regardless of months of public disagreement on coverage.

And regardless of that public disagreement, the 2 Queens boys appear to have had a heat dialog. Trump even shared reward for the younger mayor. “I actually hope he can be an incredible mayor. You have to grasp, I need what’s good for New York. I need what’s good for the nation,” he stated.

“So, if I had a alternative of getting him be a nasty mayor or horrible mayor, I don’t need that. I need him to be an incredible mayor, and he actually received potential, had nice potential.”

The president, standing alongisde Mamdani as press and the 2 politicians stood within the backyard of Gracie Mansion, stated he was hosted many instances on the famed home. “I’ve been at Gracie Mansion, we had been discussing, fairly a number of instances over time, lots. And it type of seems like a house, and it’s a particular place, a really particular, a good looking place once you go inside. And I’ve seen it with quite a few totally different mayors.”

“And I stated, some nice ones and a few not so nice ones,” Trump continued earlier than turning to Mamdani. “So hopefully you’re going to be an incredible one. I’ll be capable of say you’re a going to be an incredible one. And you’re off to a begin.”

Trump additionally recalled encouraging Mamdani to maneuver into the mansion after his election, saying Mamdani had hesitated over its dimension: “Well, I can say, from my standpoint, I like New York, and this represents New York. This is the place the mayor lived, and continues to reside. And we had been discussing it a very long time in the past once you first received elected. I stated, ‘Well, you’re going to maneuver,’ since you had been possibly having some doubts about transferring in as a result of it’s a little bit on the luxurious aspect,” Trump stated with a smirk.

Building housing in Queens

Mamdani and the president mentioned Sunnyside Yards, a proposal to deck over the Queens rail yard for 12,000 houses and 30,000 jobs, which the mayor’s workplace says would require more than $21 billion in federal grants. Mamdani stated that the 2 had a really productive dialog.

“What we’re speaking about is one thing very uncommon in our metropolis. It’s the potential for developing a completely new neighborhood, and once more, it’s solely attainable with federal partnership,” he defined.

The Queens-native president didn’t say whether or not he would ship federal funds town’s method, however stated it might completely be expensive with none.

“Sunnyside’s an enormous job. I’ve been watching that for 35 years,” he stated, doubtless referring to the Eighties when he owned the New Jersey Generals soccer staff and toyed with the concept of bringing an area to the world, dubbed on the time the “Trumpdome.”

“The mayor introduced that up-the risk of doing Sunnyside Yards,” he continued. “You’re going to want a variety of federal approvals and doubtless some federal cash to do it. But it’s at all times been an incredible location.”

Following the joint press convention, which additionally included remarks about TPS and the banning of a number of media retailers from the White House, the mayor took further questions relating to the dialog and the budding relationship the 2 appear to have shaped.

“The president and I’ve each been very frank concerning the many disagreements that we’ve got, and immigration is a type of locations,” Mamdani stated. “We’ve each spoken about very totally different approaches, very totally different beliefs, and I’ll proceed to have conversations with the president, and albeit, with anybody who can ship reduction to the folks of town.”