“Mayor Mamdani Tuesday rejected calls from his political base on the left to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch over the presence of ICE agents in New York,” the New York Daily News reports.
“Mamdani went on to praise Tisch’s record, touting her work ‘uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD’ as well as overseeing a drop in murders and shootings across the city.”
“The Arlington County Board in Virginia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Thursday, in an effort to block the construction of the President’s proposed triumphal arch in Washington, D.C,” MS NOW reports.
“A man running to become a police chief in a small town in Louisiana has been accused of raping two girls,” NewsNation reports.
“Although he was arrested on charges of rape, Chris Paul remains on the ballot, running unopposed, as the other candidate in the race announced that he was stepping down.”
“Karen Bass has never lost an election. But this fall, she faces the fight of her political life,” The Guardian reports.
“Bass has roughly a month to convince voters that she should be elected to a second term as the mayor of Los Angeles. Given Angelenos’ broad dissatisfaction with the direction of the city, approval ratings on par with Donald Trump’s and a wave of anti-establishment sentiment sweeping American politics, she has a formidable challenge in city council member Nithya Raman.”
“Chances are it’s not where Bass, who came back to run Los Angeles after a long and successful political career in Sacramento and Washington, had imagined she’d be.”
“Voters could make history next month by giving the two largest U.S. cities something in common: South Asian immigrant democratic socialist mayors,” Axios reports.
“Such a pairing would capture two forces reshaping urban America — its growing diversity and the Democratic Party’s shifting ideological boundaries.”
“New York, the nation’s largest city, is already led by democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”
“The challenger in Los Angeles is Nithya Raman, an Indian-born urban planner and two-term City Council member who is trying to unseat Democratic Mayor Karen Bass on Nov. 3.”
“New York City Mayor Mamdani must redo the rollout of his new pied-à-terre tax, a state judge ruled Tuesday, dealing a major blow to one of the mayor’s signature policies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Justice Wayne Ozzi, of Staten Island, sided with plaintiffs who said the rollout of the surcharge unlawfully put the burden on homeowners to prove their residency status, when city officials should have verified that information themselves.”
Bloomberg: Rollout of NYC’s pied-a-terre tax suffers setback in lawsuit.
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stopped by ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ on Monday and addressed his friendly relationship with President Trump, prompting Kimmel to ask for advice on how to get on the president’s good side,” The Wrap reports.
Said Mamdani: “Sorry, brother. Look, the president and I have many disagreements. 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 can we make this meeting not about us but about New Yorkers? How can we spend that time talking about the things that could make life in this city that little bit easier?’ And that’s what it’s been.”
“President Donald Trump’s long-term bromance with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has scrambled Republicans’ collective effort to make the democratic socialist the boogeyman of the midterm elections,” Politico reports.
“GOP candidates across the country have sought to tie their opponents to the 34-year-old mayor, his anti-Israel views and his brand of socialism — a bet that American voters will reject the Democratic Party’s leftward tilt.”
Deadline: Saturday Night Live’ opens with riff on Donald Trump’s need for more time with Zohran Mamdani: “I really, really like you.
“The conversations we have are not just those of a mayor and a president, but those of two New Yorkers — New Yorkers with many differences of opinion, but who love this city.”
— New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, quoted by Mother Jones, on why President Trump seems to like him so much.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a video Tuesday, escalating a feud with one of his most prominent U.S. critics as he travels to the United Nations General Assembly,” Bloomberg reports.
“‘Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani,’ Netanyahu said in the video posted to social media, accusing the mayor of supporting Hamas and ‘inciting’ violence against Jewish New Yorkers.”
“President Trump offered rare praise for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), saying he has ‘great potential,'” NewsNation reports.
Said Trump: “No, I certainly hope he will be a great mayor. You have to understand — I want what’s good for New York. I want what’s good for the country.”
He added: “So, if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor or horrible mayor, I don’t want that. I want him to be a great mayor, and he’s certainly got potential and great potential.”
Financial Times: Trump and Mamdani strike friendly tone in New York City housing talks.
“New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted President Donald Trump on Monday at Gracie Mansion, one of the president’s ‘favorite places in the World’ and the mayor’s official residence, as the two leaders continued a cordial relationship despite their sharp political differences,” the Washington Post reports.
“It was their third meeting and the first on the mayor’s turf since he won election in November. Although Trump has derided Mamdani as a ‘communist’ and warned that he would tear New York apart, the president has also appeared charmed by the 34-year-old mayor.”
“The meeting was especially unusual for taking place just weeks ahead of midterm elections in which Trump has tried to rally his base by warning it about left-wing candidates.”
“President Trump arrived Monday afternoon at Gracie Mansion for a meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — making the first presidential visit to Hizzoner’s official residence since Ronald Reagan visited Ed Koch in 1981 to tout federal investments in a local roadway project,” the New York Post reports.
Said Trump: “I spent lots of hours there over the years, with some great Mayors, some average Mayors, and some bad Mayors. It will be interesting to see how it looks now, invited by Mayor Mamdani.”
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will meet with President Donald Trump on Monday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly,” CNN reports.
“The meeting will take place at Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence in Manhattan.”
“In the liberal Blue Ridge Mountains city of Asheville, N.C. progressives fear the Trump administration could use Flock Safety cameras to spy on political dissidents, transgender residents and undocumented immigrants,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In the foothills 95 miles south, Republicans in conservative Oconee County, S.C. view the same AI-enabled license-plate readers as a threat to constitutional privacy rights and have even read aloud from the Federalist Papers at tense public meetings.”
“Days apart, both communities recently voted to stop using Flock cameras. Though political opposites, they have landed on the same side of a fast-growing national backlash: a fight against government surveillance that has forged rare common ground in America.”
“Lawmakers in an Atlanta suburb removed the city’s young mayor, accusing him of misusing a municipal credit card and engaging in inappropriate, sexually explicit communications with a teenager,” NBC News reports.
“The City Council of Stockbridge, Georgia, voted 3-0 to remove Jayden Williams, 23, from office about 10 months after he was elected.”
“Brandon Johnson will seek a second term as Democratic mayor of Chicago, likely facing an uphill battle to stay in office as his opponents have raised millions ahead of next year’s race,” Bloomberg reports.
“Ending months of speculation, Johnson announced the bid via a video on social media and will make it official at a rally Sunday afternoon on the city’s South Side.”
New York Magazine: “News cameras captured the moment as Mamdani and Giuliani shared a brief handshake and a few words, inaudible in the recording. On social media, several people concluded that Giuliani likely said, ‘I’ll pray for you. It’s a really hard job.'”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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