Overview
- At a televised town hall, the New York City mayor described candid talks with President Trump and said the conversations focus on concrete city needs.
- He said Trump was open to a federal-local partnership for new affordable housing at Sunnyside Yard in Queens, a large railyard seen as a key development site.
- Mamdani also recounted giving the president names of detainees tied to Columbia and said Trump soon called to approve a student's release, a claim that comes as Homeland Security disputes part of the arrest account.
- The mayor is pushing a surcharge on non-residents who own second homes in the city worth more than $5 million, which his office estimates would raise about $500 million a year to help pay for universal, affordable childcare.
- Trump attacked the proposal on Truth Social and wrote that Mamdani is “DESTROYING New York,” while the mayor points to early delivery moves like adding 2,000 childcare seats for two-year-olds this fall and filling 102,000 potholes, stressing that federal funds make up a meaningful share of the city budget.