Mamdani and Trump discuss immigration and affordability at Gracie Mansion

US president Donald Trump sat down with Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion on Monday, their first meeting in New York City after two in Washington that were surprisingly amicable given the sharp jabs they have traded publicly.

The two men appeared together at a news conference after the meeting, which Mamdani characterized as a “wide-ranging” discussion that touched on affordability, a proposed mega-development in Queens and the Trump administration’s decision to strip Temporary Protected Status from some immigrant groups, including Haitians.

Before the meeting, which lasted about an hour, the president wrote on social media that Mamdani had invited him to the mansion, which he described as “one of my favorite places in the World”. Trump said it would “be interesting to see” what the residence looked like with the current mayor as its occupant. Trump is in New York for a scheduled speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

The meeting with Mamdani, a democratic socialist, came after a series of victories in New York and around the country by leftist candidates, whom the president and his fellow Republicans continue to deride as communists and extremists.

The two have met twice before, most recently during an unannounced visit by Mamdani to the White House in February, after which the mayor said Trump had expressed support for an ambitious proposal to build affordable housing at a rail yard in Queens.

The topic of immigration remains a source of tension between the two men. This month, Mamdani accused immigration authorities of making “the very act of being an immigrant” a crime after the Trump administration announced that more than 2,000 people had been arrested in a monthlong enforcement operation in New York. Last week, the mayor joined a lawsuit challenging an administration policy that would make it harder for some immigrants who use public benefits to obtain green cards.

The mayor and Trump insulted each other pointedly during the mayoral campaign last year, with the president labeling Mamdani a “lunatic” and Mamdani calling Trump a “despot”.

But at their first meeting, in the Oval Office in November, Trump, a New York native, praised the mayor-elect, saying he expected to help rather than hurt him. When a reporter asked Mamdani whether he still viewed the president as a fascist, Trump interjected: “You can just say yes. That’s easier.”

Here’s what else to know:

— Trump at Gracie: Trump’s visit to Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence, on Monday was his first as president, but not his first ever. In 2003, he attended former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s wedding there; in 2007, he and his wife Melania Trump attended a book party for Rep. Charles Rangel. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor at the time, hosted both events.

— Past presidents at Gracie: Presidential visits to the mansion are rare. Harry S. Truman attended a luncheon there in 1949 during ceremonies for the laying of the cornerstone for the U.N. headquarters. President John F. Kennedy delivered a major speech on medical care for older Americans there in 1962. And President Ronald Reagan visited in 1981 to promote the proposed Westway project on Manhattan’s West Side.

— Photo boycott: Because the Trump administration has barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, The New York Times and other outlets will not publish or distribute pictures from pool photographers covering the president Monday, including any related to his meeting with Mamdani.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.