How Trump and Mamdani Found Common Ground

“When Mayor Zohran Mamdani met President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last fall, the 34-year-old democratic socialist steered their private conversation toward an unlikely subject: New York City zoning laws,” Politico reports.

“It wasn’t idle policy chatter. The city’s labyrinthine land-use approval process has long been a personal fixation for the Queens-born president — a grievance that dates back decades to his days as a New York real estate developer. For Mamdani, who entered the meeting as a liberal villain to the right and a frequent Trump antagonist, it proved a rare point of resonance.”

“Trump became animated as Mamdani described how the system slows housing construction, telling the mayor he had wanted it overhauled for years, according to a person with direct knowledge of the meeting.”