SerpApi.Org
Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that he will not try to flatter President Donald Trump to keep immigration enforcement out of New York City.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published this week, he expressed his intention to continue openly disagreeing with the president.
When asked if he stays on Trump’s good side to avoid an ICE or National Guard deployment in New York like those seen in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, Mamdani emphasized that honesty, not flattery, guides his approach.
“I think I need to continue to be honest with the president, and that honesty involves areas of disagreement,” Mamdani told Rolling Stone.
Mamdani said he has directly told Trump that he views ICE as “a cruel agency that does nothing to serve the interest of public safety.” He believes the agency should be abolished and replaced with a more humane immigration system, according to the interview.
Mamdani described his relationship with Trump as unchanged since their first meeting at the White House in November, shortly after he won the mayoral election.
“The relationship is as it was. It’s built around New York City,” Mamdani said. “For all the many disagreements that the president and I have, we share one thing in common, which is a love of this place. Whenever we speak or meet, it always returns to that.”
The interview, conducted by Rolling Stone’s Jack Crosbie, was released as the Trump administration suggested plans to expand ICE operations in New York City.
Border czar Tom Homan has indicated that additional enforcement activity is coming to the city, according to Fox News.
Mamdani took office in January as one of New York’s youngest mayors in decades. Against the odds, he won the Democratic primary last year against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
He secured the general election with a Democratic socialist platform that included expanding the city’s sanctuary protections and limiting cooperation between the New York Police Department and federal immigration agents.
His first real meeting with Trump, which took place at the White House in November before his inauguration, received national attention for its friendly tone, contrasting the public criticism exchanged during Mamdani’s campaign.
At that meeting, Trump and Mamdani bonded over shared interests, including New York City zoning and community boards, as noted in the Rolling Stone interview.
Mamdani has spent his first six months in office focusing on affordability, working on housing costs and city services, according to the interview.
He said his approach to Trump, which has been surprisingly effective, is based on engaging with the administration on city-specific problems, like infrastructure and federal funding, while still opposing federal immigration enforcement publicly.
