And yet the two seem to be, as the first sketch of Saturday Night Live‘s new season terms “unlikely animal friends,” with Trump routinely praising the charismatic first-term mayor, even as he and his regime relentlessly attack virtually everything Mamdani stands for. That’s the situation Jimmy Kimmel attempted to wrap his head around on Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, asking featured guest Mamdani with genuine curiosity, “Did you guys hit it off immediately or is it something that you really went into thinking, ‘OK, I need to have a relationship with the president of the United States, and I think the best way to do it is to charm him?'” Frequent Trump target Kimmel then concluded by asking bluntly, “How did you do that, and can you help me?”
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.”
Keep scrolling for more great stories.