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Ongoing story / Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani's meetings and clashes with Trump

Overview · reviewed November 12, 2026

Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist elected mayor of New York City in November 2025, and President Donald Trump have met in person three times, on warmer terms than their public insults suggested.[1] They talked at the White House in November 2025 and February 2026,[2][3] and at Gracie Mansion in September 2026, where they agreed to deepen talks on a housing project in Queens.[1] In October 2026, after a federal immigration officer shot a man in the city, Mamdani said two hours of negotiations with Trump by phone had failed.[4]

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They talked at the White House in November 2025 and February 2026,[2][3] and at Gracie Mansion in September 2026, where they agreed to deepen talks on a housing project in Queens.[1] In October 2026, after a federal immigration officer shot a man in the city, Mamdani said two hours of negotiations with Trump by phone had failed.[4]

Coverage over time

Share of tracked outlets · weekly (UTC)

Week of 2025-11-17 (UTC): 25%, 48 of 189 tracked outlets (18 left, 17 center, 13 right)Week of 2025-11-24 (UTC): 2%, 3 of 153 tracked outlets (0 left, 0 center, 3 right)Week of 2025-12-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-05 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-12 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-19 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-26 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-23 (UTC): 9%, 16 of 186 tracked outlets (4 left, 7 center, 5 right)Week of 2026-03-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-30 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-04 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-11 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-18 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-25 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-03 (UTC): under 1%, 1 of 537 tracked outlets (1 left, 0 center, 0 right)Week of 2026-08-10 (UTC): 4%, 20 of 545 tracked outlets (3 left, 5 center, 12 right)Week of 2026-08-17 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-24 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-31 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-09-07 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-09-14 (UTC): 7%, 34 of 480 tracked outlets (9 left, 19 center, 6 right)Week of 2026-09-21 (UTC): 9%, 41 of 479 tracked outlets (13 left, 13 center, 15 right)Week of 2026-09-28 (UTC): 1%, 3 of 476 tracked outlets (2 left, 0 center, 1 right)Week of 2026-10-05 (UTC): 7%, 34 of 479 tracked outlets (8 left, 14 center, 12 right)Week of 2026-10-12 (UTC): under 1%, 2 of 476 tracked outlets (1 left, 0 center, 1 right)Week of 2026-10-19 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-10-26 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-11-02 (UTC): 3%, 16 of 471 tracked outlets (4 left, 3 center, 9 right)Week of 2026-11-09 (UTC): under 1%, 1 of 473 tracked outlets (1 left, 0 center, 0 right), so far

LeftCenterRightLighter bar: this week so far

Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 5 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.

Weekly counts, outlets and reports (12 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)LeftCenterRightOf trackedShareReceipts
Nov 9, 2026 (so far)1001 of 473under 1%
Nov 2, 202643916 of 4713%
Oct 12, 20261012 of 476under 1%
Oct 5, 20268141234 of 4797%
Sep 28, 20262013 of 4761%
Sep 21, 202613131541 of 4799%
Sep 14, 2026919634 of 4807%
Aug 10, 2026351220 of 5454%
Aug 3, 20261001 of 537under 1%
Feb 23, 202647516 of 1869%
Nov 24, 20250033 of 1532%
Nov 17, 202518171348 of 18925%

Latest coverage

The newest reporting in this story's record.

  1. Nov 7, 2026 · first reported · Headline from amNewYork

    Federal judge orders Mamdani administration to turn over names of Bronx shelter residents with serious criminal histories to ICE

Background

Before they met, President Donald Trump had called New York City's mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, a "100% Communist Lunatic," and Mamdani had called Trump's administration "authoritarian."[2] On November 16, 2025, Trump said he planned to meet Mamdani and that they would "work something out."[5] The two met in the Oval Office on November 21, and Trump praised Mamdani's election victory.[2] When a reporter asked Mamdani there whether he considered Trump a fascist, Trump interrupted to tell him he could "just say yes." Mamdani said afterward that he still held that view and saw the meeting as an opportunity to work together for New Yorkers.[6]

Read the full background (4 more paragraphs)

Housing was the business of the second meeting. On February 26, 2026, Mamdani, by then mayor, went to the White House to discuss large federal investments in housing and handed Trump a mock New York Daily News front page reading "Trump to City: Let's Build." His press secretary said he had proposed a project that could deliver one of the biggest federal investments in housing of the past 50 years.[3]

The friendliness had limits. In August 2026, after a Staten Island judge temporarily blocked Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax, a surcharge on second homes, Trump attacked the tax on Truth Social and said he was looking into whether the federal government could kill it.[7]

The third meeting came on September 21, 2026, as the United Nations General Assembly opened, when Trump visited Gracie Mansion, the mayor's residence. They opened talks on Mamdani's $21 billion pitch for federal funding to build 12,000 homes above Sunnyside Yard in Queens, and Trump said he hoped Mamdani would be a "great mayor."[1] Some of Trump's allies worried that his kind words undercut the Republican midterm message attacking "communism,"[8] and the pro-Trump influencer Laura Loomer criticized the meeting without naming the president.[9]

The rapport was tested in October. On October 8, a federal immigration officer shot a man in the neck as he drove with a 5-year-old boy in the car. Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and said he had spent two hours on the phone with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pressing for the man's release. He said those negotiations had failed and called for an end to the agency's operations in the city.[4] Some of his allies then questioned his attitude toward the president.[4] In November, Mamdani threatened to sue over reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was using city park lots as staging grounds.[10] On November 6, a federal judge ordered the Mamdani administration to comply with an ICE for the names and birth dates of homeless shelter residents.[11]

Supporting stories (11)
  1. New York Mayor Mamdani meets with Trump at Gracie Mansion
  2. Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's cordial meeting
  3. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani meets President Trump at the White House to talk housing
  4. Mamdani says ICE agents who shot man in New York looked like ‘mass shooters’
  5. Trump plans to meet with Mamdani, says he'll 'work something out' with New York City's mayor-elect
  6. Mamdani maintains Trump a ‘fascist’ despite cordial White House meeting
  7. President Trump weighs in on Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax
  8. Republicans want to turn Mamdani into a bogeyman for the midterms. Trump just made that harder
  9. MAGA influencer takes veiled shots at Trump for meeting Mamdani: ‘Sad to see’
  10. Mamdani threatens to sue ICE over reported use of NYC park lots as staging grounds
  11. Mamdani admin must hand ICE the names of NYC homeless shelter residents: court

The full record

Each date is when an update was first reported.

All 14 recorded updates

November 2026

  1. Mamdani admin must hand ICE the names of NYC homeless shelter residents: courtHeadline from New York Post · 5 outlets
  2. Mamdani threatens to sue ICE over reported use of NYC park lots as staging groundsHeadline from amNewYork · 15 outlets

October 2026

  1. Mamdani says ICE agents who shot man in New York looked like ‘mass shooters’Headline from The Guardian · 38 outlets

September 2026

  1. Mamdani draws line with Kimmel over Trump meeting: ‘Jimmy, I love you, but…”Headline from Cleveland Plain Dealer · 3 outlets
  2. Mamdani gives no-nonsense response when asked to defend Trump meetingHeadline from NJ.com / Star-Ledger · 3 outlets
  3. Lip reader reveals what Trump and Mamdani said during off-mic exchange at NYC meeting: ‘Don’t speak’Headline from AL.com · 3 outlets
  4. Republicans want to turn Mamdani into a bogeyman for the midterms. Trump just made that harderHeadline from WTOP Washington DC · 8 outlets
  5. MAGA influencer takes veiled shots at Trump for meeting Mamdani: ‘Sad to see’Headline from AL.com · 3 outlets
  6. New York Mayor Mamdani meets with Trump at Gracie MansionHeadline from UPI · 53 outlets

August 2026

  1. President Trump weighs in on Mamdani’s pied-à-terre taxHeadline from Pix11 · 22 outlets

February 2026

  1. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani meets President Trump at the White House to talk housingHeadline from CBS News · 17 outlets

November 2025

  1. Mamdani maintains Trump a ‘fascist’ despite cordial White House meetingHeadline from Al Jazeera · 16 outlets
  2. Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's cordial meetingHeadline from Delaware Public Media · 40 outlets
  3. Trump plans to meet with Mamdani, says he'll 'work something out' with New York City's mayor-electHeadline from KOB 4 · 16 outlets

Coverage & sources

Read the reports, see how much was collected over time, or compare outlets by political leaning.

Coverage & sources →