A big smile and a curious gift: Trump met again with Mamdani at the White House

Zohran Mamdani met with Donald Trump at the White House. The mayor of New York City sat down with the president to discuss possible solutions to the city's housing problem. The Democrat was the first to tout the meeting, which he described as "productive," even bringing a newspaper model, with which Trump posed with a big smile.

"I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon. I'm looking forward to building more housing in New York City," Mamdani posted on his X account, where he added a photo with the president in the Oval Room.

As Politico had previewed, the meeting between the two focused on "housing development in New York City," specifically on how the city can pave the way for "great projects." On Mamdani's gifts for Trump, the mayor brought two newspaper covers from the New York Daily News, a real one from 1975 and a fictitious one with the president's face.

Just minutes after the initial post on X, the mayor uploaded another post noting that he had spoken to the president on the phone about the situation of Elmina Aghayeva, a Columbia University student who had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Aghayeva is originally from Azerbaijan and reported on Instagram that she had been "illegally" arrested.

"Just got off the phone with President Trump. In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning. He has just informed me that she will be released imminently," Mamdani said.

The meeting is the latest of Trump's nods to Mamdani, whom he even praised during his State of the Union address: "The new communist mayor of New York, I think he's a good guy, really. I talk to him a lot. Bad politics, but good guy."

In one stretch of the speech, the Republican was pushing for passage of the SAVE Act. This is an electoral reform that would require people registering to vote in federal elections to present proof of citizenship and a photo ID.

In this context, he criticized congressional Democrats who oppose the bill, giving as an example some work requirements for shoveling snow in the Big Apple.

"If you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card. Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all voting in America. No. It's no good. No good. Both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree on the policy that we just enunciated. And congress should unite and enact this common sense country saving legislation right now, and it should be before anything else happens," Trump exclaimed during the speech.

Even in mid-January, Axios reported that Trump and Mamdani exchanged messages often on a variety of topics, including domestic politics and the capture of Nicolas Maduro.