Mamdani needs rapport with Trump to continue as he seeks federal support for New York City

WASHINGTON — The first face-to-face meeting between incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump in November avoided the harsh exchanges they traded during the mayoral campaign. Instead, both talked about their mutual love of the city and finding common ground.

But as Mamdani, 34, prepares to take the helm of the city that fueled Trump's rise, the democratic socialist will still need to navigate a Trump administration at odds with much of his agenda of taxing the wealthy and increasing social service spending.

He’ll face a federal administration that has targeted Democrat-led cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., with large-scale immigration raids and U.S. National Guard troop deployments over the past year.

Mamdani will also oversee a city that receives more than $7 billion in federal funding — roughly 6.4% of the city’s overall budget — at a time when Trump and top White House advisers have threatened to yank funding from blue-cities that do not comply with the president’s executive orders and policies on immigration or eliminate programs that promote "diversity, equity and inclusion."

The incoming Mamdani administration has mapped out some of its plans to respond to Trump in a six-page "Trump-Proofing NYC" blueprint that calls for boosting legal funding for more city lawyers to challenge Trump’s policies in the courts, and increasing access to immigrant legal defense programs.

But political analysts contend that the new mayor will also need to rely on business leaders and lawmakers to push back on any efforts by Trump to follow through on past threats to stall funding.

"There’s a financial lever that can be pulled, up to a point," said Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University. "But some of that money is somewhat automatic in nature, and an effort by the administration to financially punish the city by withholding a lot of funds would not play well. New York is the financial capital of the world, and America’s most important city. It’s not good for the country if it struggles."

Vows to nix funding

Trump has previously vowed to cancel funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project and the Second Avenue subway extension.

But Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and public planning at New York University, said he’ll likely hear an earful from the region’s business leaders, who will warn Trump of the economic peril of delaying such massive projects regardless of who resides in Gracie Mansion.

Moss said Mamdani, a longtime Astoria resident, will likely find himself trying to find ways to personally appeal to Trump, the Queens-born president, to avoid an escalation of tensions.

"Manhattan has the museums and the money, but Queens has the political forces," Moss told Newsday in a phone interview. "I think that it's no surprise that two guys from Queens are in charge of the country, and now the city."

Immigration is one area the two leaders are decidedly on opposite ends, with Mamdani calling for the preservation of the city’s so-called "sanctuary" laws that limit information sharing between city agencies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Where I think Trump might be able to make the mayor’s life miserable is by using immigration enforcement and customs enforcement to disrupt daily life in the city, and to provoke protests, etc., that the mayor then has to handle," Reeher said in an email to Newsday.

Reeher said such a move has the potential to "backfire" on Trump, as "as more people are souring on ICE’s methods."

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he expects the longstanding partnership between the federal government and New York City law enforcement agencies in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to remain steady as outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, a Trump ally, steps down.

Garbarino, head of a committee that has long helped steer funding and resources to New York for counterterrorism efforts, said it is up to Mamdani to set the tone for the relationship he plans to have with the federal government.

"Hopefully he realizes that keeping New York safe should be his top priority," Garbarino said.

Combative rhetoric

Trump, before his Nov. 21 meeting with Mamdani, repeatedly threatened to stall federal funding to the city if the state assemblyman, who ran on a promise of increasing taxes on the wealthy, was elected.

But during their Oval Office meeting, the president softened the tone of those threats when he was asked by a reporter what policies would cause him to stop the flow of money.

"Whether it's cut off, or just make it a little bit difficult, or not give as much ... we don't want good money going after bad," Trump said. "We don't want that to happen. I don't think that's going to happen."

Mamdani, in interviews with reporters after the Trump one-on-one, has said he stands by his past critical remarks about Trump, including describing the president as a "fascist." But he also said he believes they can find common ground on policies to make New York City more affordable.

"What I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the President was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment," Mamdani said on NBC’s "Meet the Press" last month. "And we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on a shared analysis of an affordability crisis for New Yorkers."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.