NYC Mayor-elect hopes to meet with Trump to discuss affordability

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NYC Mayor-elect hopes to meet with Trump to discuss affordability

2025-11-18 05:07 Last Updated At：05:20

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Monday that he hopes to meet with President Donald Trump to find ways the political polar opposites can work together on the central focus of his winning campaign: affordability.

At an appearance at a food pantry in the Bronx, the Democrat confirmed that his team had reached out to the White House to set up a possible sit-down.

Trump told reporters Sunday night that he planned meet with Mamdani, saying ” we’ll work something out ” as he prepared to fly back to Washington after spending the weekend in Florida.

Mamdani said the overture reflected his commitment to meet with anyone who could help address the city's most pressing needs, including controlling soaring costs.

“The president ran a campaign where he spoke about a promise to deliver cheaper groceries, a promise to reduce the cost of living," the mayor-elect said after visiting Part of the Solution, or POTS. “We are seeing his actions and that of his administration in Washington leading to the exact opposite effect for New Yorkers.”

Mamdani also criticized Trump's efforts to cut funding to the food aid program known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, during the federal government shutdown.

He vowed to “protect” New Yorkers from a “federal administration that would rather starve the people of this city, than serve the people of this city.”

The potential face-to-face could represent a detente for the Republican president and Democratic political star, who have cast each other as political foils.

Trump has for months slammed Mamdani, falsely labeling him as a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown if the democratic socialist was elected.

He also threatened to deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen in 2018, and to pull federal money from the city.

Trump has spoken more about affordability following the November election, when Republicans lost badly in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. But he and Republicans insist the economy has never been stronger.

In a social media post Friday, Trump even declared the GOP is the "Party of Affordability!”

Meanwhile Mamdani has risen from an obscure state lawmaker representing Queens to a symbol of the resistance against Trump in just a few short months.

The 34-year-old upset former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June’s Democratic primary then trounced him and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the general election.

During his victory speech earlier this month, Mamdani said he wanted New York to show the country how to defeat the president.

He's also talked about “Trump-proofing” New York once he takes office in January while also promising to work with anyone, including the president, if it benefited New Yorkers.

Trump awards medals to the Kennedy Center honorees in an Oval Office ceremony

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.

This year's recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.

Trump said they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that, “I know most of them and I've been a fan of all of them.”

“This is a group of icons whose work and accomplishments have inspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans,” said a tuxedo-clad Trump. "This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center Honorees ever assembled.”

Trump ignored the Kennedy Center and its premier awards program during his first term as president. But the Republican has instituted a series of changes since returning to office in January, most notably ousting its board of trustees and replacing them with GOP supporters who voted him in as chairman of the board.

Trump also has criticized the center's programming and its physical appearance, and has vowed to overhaul both.

The president placed around each honoree's neck a new medal that was designed, created and donated by jeweler Tiffany & Co., according to the Kennedy Center and Trump.

It's a gold disc etched on one side with the Kennedy Center's image and rainbow colors. The honoree's name appears on the reverse side with the date of the ceremony. The medallion hangs from a navy blue ribbon and replaces a large rainbow ribbon decorated with three gold plates that rested on the honoree's shoulders and chest and had been used since the first honors program in 1978.

Strait, wearing a cowboy hat, was first to receive his medal. When the country singer started to take off the hat, Trump said, “If you want to leave it on, you can. I think we can get it through.” But Strait took it off.

The president said Crawford was a “great star of Broadway” for his lead role in the long-running “Phantom of the Opera.” Of Gaynor, he said, “We have the disco queen, and she was indeed, and nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor.”

Trump was effusive about his friend Stallone, calling him a “wonderful” and “spectacular” person and “one of the true, great movie stars” and "one of the great legends."

Kiss is an “incredible rock band," he said.

Songs by honorees Gaynor and Kiss played in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office as members of the White House press corps waited nearby for Trump to begin the ceremony.

The president president said in August that he was “about 98% involved” in choosing the 2025 honorees when he personally announced them at the Kennedy Center, the first slate chosen under his leadership. The honorees traditionally had been announced by press release.

It was unclear how they were chosen. Before Trump, it fell to a bipartisan selection committee.

“These are among the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation. The greatest that we’ve seen,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the country music phenomena without its king of country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its phantom — and that was a phantom, let me tell you — or rock and roll without its hottest band in the world, and that’s what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries."

“Each of you has made an indelible mark on American life and together you have defined entire genres and set new standards for the performing arts,” Trump said.

Trump also attended an annual State Department dinner for the honorees on Saturday. In years past, the honorees received their medallions there but Trump moved the ceremony to the White House.

Meanwhile, the glitzy Kennedy Center Honors program and its series of tribute speeches and performances for each recipient is set to be taped on Sunday at the performing arts center for broadcast later in December on CBS and Paramount+. Trump is to attend the program for the first time as president, accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

The president said in August that he had agreed to host the show, and he seemed to confirm on Saturday that he would do so, predicting that the broadcast would garner its highest ratings ever as a result. Presidents traditionally attend the program and sit with the honorees in the audience. None has ever served as host.

He said he looked forward to Sunday's celebration.

“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: this will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen tomorrow night,” Trump said.

The president also swiped at late-night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel, whose program was briefly suspended earlier this year by ABC following criticism of his comments related to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September.

Kimmel and Trump are sharp critics of each other, with the president regularly deriding Kimmel's talent as a host. Kimmel has hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Academy Award multiple times.

Trump said he should be able to outdo Kimmel.

“I've watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Trump said. “If I can't beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don't think I should be president.”