President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani met at the White House Oval Office to discuss a range of issues, including their sharp differences over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s role in New York City. Trump emphasized the need to remove dangerous criminals to keep the city safe, while Mamdani underscored his commitment to protecting migrants and upholding sanctuary city laws. Despite divergent views, both leaders expressed willingness to find common ground for the safety and affordability challenges facing New Yorkers.
00:00For you, you've referred to Mr. Mabdani as a communist.
00:03Could you describe why you feel that way?
00:05And also, will you do anything to stop him from arresting Prime Minister Netanyahu if he visits New York?
00:11Well, we didn't discuss your second part of the question.
00:14And on your first part, I mean, he's got views that are a little out there, but who knows?
00:19I mean, we're going to see what works.
00:21He's going to change also. We all change. I change a lot.
00:24I change a lot. From when I first came to office, it's now quite a while ago.
00:29It's quite a while. My first term was great.
00:32We had the greatest economy in the history of our country.
00:34We're doing even better now. We're doing much better now than we did even the first term.
00:38And I can tell you, some of my views have changed.
00:41And we had discussions on some things.
00:44I'm not going to discuss what they were, but that I feel very confident that he can do a very good job.
00:50I think he's going to be, I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually.
00:55And some very liberal people. He won't surprise him because they already like him.
01:00And Mr. Montani, it sounds like you had a productive discussion, but just days ago you referred to President Trump as a despot who had betrayed the country.
01:08You said you'd be his worst nightmare and accused him of having a fascist agenda.
01:13Are you planning to retract any of these remarks in order to improve your relationship?
01:18I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views.
01:23And what I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many,
01:29and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers.
01:34And frankly, that is something that could transform the lives of the eight and a half million people who are currently struggling under a cost of living crisis with one in four living in poverty.
01:42And the meeting came back again and again to what it could look like to lift those New Yorkers out of struggle
01:47and start to deliver them a city that they could do more than just struggle to afford it, but actually start to live in it.
01:51And I've been called much worse than a despot, so it's not that himself.
01:56Mr. President, you've threatened to send federal troops to New York City.
02:00You both have differences when it comes to ICE agents in New York City.
02:05Mr. Mondani, you've called ICE a rogue government entity.
02:08I wonder how you reconcile your differences on both of those issues.
02:12Well, I think we're going to work them out.
02:13And I think that if we have known murderers and known drug dealers and some very bad people, you know, we want to get them out.
02:23And the mayor wants to have peace.
02:24We discussed this at great length, actually, maybe more than anything else.
02:28He wants to have a safe New York.
02:30Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York.
02:33If it's not safe, no matter how well we do with pricing and with anything else, we can talk about anything you want.
02:39If you don't have safe streets, it's not going to be a success.
02:43So we're going to work together.
02:44We're going to make sure that if there are horrible people there, we want to get them out.
02:48I think he wants to get them out maybe more than I do.
Be the first to comment