Mamdani says he and Trump “are in touch,” have “one place of agreement”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that he and President Trump “are in touch” and are “honest, direct about the fact that we have many disagreements.”

“There is one place of agreement that we have, which is that we both love New York City,” Mamdani said in an interview on “CBS Mornings.”

Mr. Trump, a native New Yorker, has been friendly toward Mamdani despite their political differences, with the president praising him at a remarkable White House meeting in November where they pledged to work together to make the city better. They met again in February to talk about housing development.

“In many ways, it’s a New York story of people who have vehemently differing views, and have said many things about each other, and can also still work together on the points of agreement,” Mamdani said.

At the “heart of every conversation,” he said, is the question of “how can we make the city better?” He added that both men have said publicly that “the better the city does, the better we feel.”

One key area of disagreement is the Iran war. The mayor said he’s “deeply opposed to the war,” saying it’s something that “should be opposed not just on a political level or an economic level, but frankly, a moral level.”

“We’re talking about spending close to $30 billion to kill thousands of people an ocean away, while we’re told that we don’t have even an ounce of that money to help working class Americans across this country,” Mamdani said.

Asked by “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King whether he has spoken with the president about the conflict, Mamdani said “it’s no secret of how I feel about the Iran war,” adding that “the president and I are very honest about those disagreements.” 

When pressed again, Mamdani said he and Mr. Trump have had “a conversation about a number of issues, and that includes our disagreements on foreign policy.” He said he would keep the “frequency and the nature of those conversations private, because that’s the premise of them.”

“But I will tell you that in those conversations, it is one that is driven by actually being candid,” he said. 

After Mamdani and the president first sat down together in November, Mr. Trump said “some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have.” The president also said, “we agree on a lot more than I would have thought. I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job.”

The tone was in stark contrast to months of hostility in which Mr. Trump strongly opposed Mamdani during his mayoral campaign, and even threatened to arrest and deport him. Mamdani had accused the president of acting like a “despot.”