Zohran Mamdani chooses affordable housing over trolling Trump with Jimmy Kimmel

Mamdani, for his part, would only say that his strategy from the start has been to focus on his job as mayor of the city that both he and Trump call home. “The President and I have many disagreements,” said Mamdani, “One thing we do agree on is this city, how much we love this city. So from that first meeting in November of last year, I was just thinking of how we can make this meeting not about us, but about New Yorkers. How can we spend that time talking about the things that can make life in the city a little bit easier.”

To that end, Mamdani, despite Kimmel showing the mayor’s stone-faced attendance at one of Trump’s recent meandering public rants, has been working to broker a deal with Trump for his proposed Sunnyside Yards housing development, which would provide New Yorkers with jobs and affordable housing. Mamdani told Kimmel he is also using his unexpectedly friendly relationship with Trump to secure protections for New York’s vulnerable Haitian community, whose Temporary Protected Status the administration recently cancelled. 

Kimmel, being Kimmel, still attempted to poke the bear, urging Mamdani to pose for a smiling selfie they could text directly to Trump’s overworked phone. Mamdani, displaying the sort of diplomacy that’s allowed him to stay on said bear’s good side, politely refused, stating, “Jimmy, I love you, but I love housing more.”