News & Politics

President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met in the Oval Office on November 21, 2025. Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump plans to meet with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion Monday, as the city welcomes world leaders for the U.N. General Assembly.

“The meeting will focus on issues affecting New York City and New Yorkers,” City Hall said in confirming the meeting to City & State. A spokesperson for the mayor, Dora Pekec, declined to provide any further details regarding topics of discussion or logistics for the gathering. 

But there would seem to be issues of mutual interest that go beyond just New York. The Monday confab at the mayor’s residence on the Upper East Side – his first time playing host to the president –comes on the Jewish High Holy Day of Yom Kippur, and just days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to deliver a Thursday speech at the U.N.

Netanyahu is not expected to meet with Trump during his U.S. visit, and is only planning to be in New York for about a day, The Times of Israel reported Saturday. 

Netanyahu’s past visits to New York have sparked protests from those who accuse him of committing war crimes in Gaza. And this year’s visit – his first under the Mamdani administration – is expected to cause tension. Mamdani won the 2025 mayoral race in part on his intense and consistent criticism of Israel, and he campaigned on arresting Netanyahu  if he stepped foot in the city, referencing his warrant from the International Criminal Court. But in July, Mamdani acknowledged his government wouldn’t be able to arrest the Israeli leader, and last week, inaccurately claimed that he never even encouraged New Yorkers to protest Netanyahu’s visit. 

Up to this point, City Hall has been mum on Mamdani’s plans to meet with Trump or other world leaders during the General Assembly. Over the last few days, Mamdani has held private meetings with a handful of mayors from around the world and attended meetings of the U20 conference of mayors.

On Saturday, City & State spotted Mamdani and other leaders from cities across the globe riding an open-topped double decker tourist bus, heading towards Gracie Mansion for a reception. 

“When it comes to the president, we continue to have a conversation about how best to deliver for this city,” Mamdani said last week, when asked whether he planned to meet with Trump during the U.N. General Assembly. “That is a conversation that has been done in person, it’s been done over the phone, and it will continue so long as either of us have the ability to deliver for the city.”

Mamdani has previously met Trump at the White House – both before he took office in late November 2025, and soon after taking office, in late February. The visits featured a remarkably cordial tone, given their opposing politics and Mamdani’s campaign vow to be “Trump’s worst nightmare.” Coming out of those earlier meetings, City Hall has suggested that Mamdani’s more diplomatic, rather than antagonistic, approach with Trump in office has been advantageous for the city. Mamdani advocated during the February meeting for federal investment to build housing over Sunnyside Yard, though there hasn’t been much progress reported since. He also advocated during that meeting for the release from immigration detention of pro-Palestinian protesters, including one who was detained the morning of the meeting and then released after Mamdani’s request to Trump.

“We have one thing in common,” Trump said after the November meeting. “We want this city of ours that we love to do very well.”

Despite their prior cordial encounters, the meeting at Gracie Mansion will likely be underscored with tension as the midterm elections loom. Trump has remained publicly critical of Mamdani, recently slamming him and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for “laughing” during the 9/11 remembrance event (this was based on video footage taken out of context of the two briefly greeting each other). The president has also increasingly railed against “communism” and socialism, using it as a favored line of attack against his Democratic opponents.  

Mamdani in turn, has continued to make his disagreements with the president known. Joining a group of other mayors across the country, he sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block the federal government from making it harder for immigrants to get green cards just last week.