Mayor Mamdani's 'Report Card' and Meeting with President Trump

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now, a couple of things about Mayor Mamdani. One, you probably heard he had a guest at Gracie Mansion yesterday. President Trump, in town for the UN General Assembly, stopped by for what was the third in-person meeting between the two of them and the first on the mayor's turf. It was also the first time a sitting president has set foot in Gracie Mansion since Ronald Reagan visited Ed Koch in 1981 Trump and Mamdani stood side by side in the backyard and took questions together. We'll play a couple of clips. They talked housing, specifically the long discussed idea of building over the Sunnyside Rail yard in Queens. Also on the agenda, temporary protected status for Haitian New Yorkers which the Trump administration ended. We will keep covering that, that one they do not agree on and both of them acknowledged it. Meanwhile, topic two, last week, the Mamdani administration put out its first Mayor's Management Report. That's the city's annual scorecard on itself. This one covers a fiscal year that was half Eric Adams and half Zohran Mamdani. So which numbers belong to whom is part of the story. One headline from that, candidate Mamdani promised to end the NYPD's crackdown on low level quality of life offenses.

But Katie's article, our guest article on this says Mayor Mamdani has backed away from that and the data show it. Quality of life ticket's up 12 percent.

Transit summons is mostly fair evasion at an all time high. What happened between the campaign and City Hall? Joining us now to talk about the meeting and the report card is Katie Honan, Senior Reporter at The City Reporter and co-host of the podcast, Faq Nyc. Katie, always great of you to come on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Katie Honan (2:01)

Thanks for having me on, Brian.

Brian Lehrer (2:03)

Let's start with the Mamdani Trump scene. Since you were actually on the lawn there, I understand your piece has a whole section headed friction-free and the president said the mayor is quote, off to a start toward being a great one. What did it feel like from where you were standing?

Katie Honan (2:23)

Well, I guess I was sitting to be very pedantic. But what we've seen since, I actually think it even dates back to last summer, after Zohran Mamdani won the primary. What we saw when President Trump would be asked about the mayor was, at that point, just the primary winner. It was almost admiration of what he accomplished, going from 1 percent in the polls to then defeating Andrew Cuomo in the primary. Obviously, he then had to defeat him and Curtis Liewa in November, and again, from that first meeting they had in the White House, it was, again, it's admiration. I think President Trump, we know from his background, he respects people who are popular, people who are successful, and I think he views Mayor Mamdani through that lens, and the meeting yesterday when they emerged, there was some back and forth, I guess we were curious if President Trump would join for the question and answer, the Q&A portion of it. We were not promised that he would, but I just knowing what we know about President Trump, he loves New York media, right? I know he banned people from the White House, obviously, so he does do that with reporters, but he just loves the attention, so I knew he would come out.

I just had that hunch based on how he is. So that's the impression we had. They spoke for about a minute before coming up to the podium to appear together and answer questions from the press, but that's how it started.

Brian Lehrer (3:50)

What I don't understand about that from a Trump perspective is, I thought Republicans all over the country are trying to use Mamdani as the poster politician for socialism as a threat to the American way of life, and here's Donald Trump, the head of the party, making nice. What?

Katie Honan (4:13)

Right. I think at his core, I know he's denounced New York City as his, he moved his residency to Florida, but he is still a New Yorker and he brings it up constantly when he's discussing meeting the mayor and how he wants New York to succeed. I mean, a lot of what he discussed yesterday was just him reminiscing his previous times at Gracie Mansion and how beautiful of a house it is, and all the history there. So I think he can't really shake his New York roots. Like a lot of people who move to Florida, they can't shake it either. And I mean, that's on the more superficial level. But I also just think when a lot of these people who are huge supporters of President Trump, it doesn't always square with his behavior, right? And you have people running for Congress or even sitting Congress people around the country who are just blasting Mayor Mamdani constantly. I mean, I can't imagine President Trump defending Mayor Mamdani from these sometimes Islamophobic and hateful attacks. But at the same time, he's not going to make them himself because I think he is impressed by Mayor Mamdani and he does, in the way that he believes, wants to make New York City succeed. Of course, it doesn't mean that he's stopped ICE enforcement or changing other things when it comes to New York City. It doesn't mean that he's got to fund some of the things that he's unfunded, especially when it comes to Medicare. But at the same time, in his head, I believe he believes he's helping New York.