The mayor opens up about a week that tested his political identity
A Week That Defined Mamdani’s First Act as Mayor
The week of February 23, 2026, gave New York City’s newest mayor more than enough to manage. A historic blizzard buried the city under nearly two feet of snow. A Columbia University student was detained by ICE agents on campus. An organized snowball fight in Washington Square Park turned confrontational when police arrived. And then, quietly, Mayor Zohran Mamdani boarded a plane to Washington and met with President Donald Trump. By Friday, February 27, Mamdani was at a press conference fielding questions about all of it.
The White House Visit: What Mamdani Said
Mamdani confirmed that his February 26 visit to the Oval Office served two purposes. The first was to present Trump with a proposal to develop Sunnyside Yards in Queens, a 180-acre rail yard that Mamdani wants to turn into 12,000 new homes, half of them affordable. The second was to advocate for Columbia community members detained by immigration enforcement. Mamdani told reporters that he raised his concerns about ICE raids with the president, describing his longstanding view that such raids are cruel and counterproductive to public safety. He said he asked Trump to intervene on behalf of Columbia student Ellie Aghayeva, who had been taken into custody earlier that day. Shortly after the meeting, he said, the president called him to say the student would be released, and she was. Mamdani also said he raised the cases of four other Columbia community members, including Mahmoud Khalil. He called the conversation “productive” and described it as a continuation of their November 2025 discussion.
Keeping the Meeting Under Wraps
Reports from Politico and The Guardian indicated that Mamdani kept the meeting confidential until after it concluded, a decision that drew scrutiny from some political observers who felt a publicly elected official meeting with the president should be transparent in real time. The mayor did not dispute that the meeting had been arranged discreetly. His office framed the approach as pragmatic: publicizing the visit in advance could have jeopardized the housing conversation and other sensitive topics. Whether that explanation satisfies critics may depend on how productive the meeting ultimately proves to have been.
The Snowball Fight: A Loyalty Test
Perhaps the most politically charged topic at the February 27 press conference was Mamdani’s continued refusal to describe the Washington Square Park snowball incident as an assault on police officers. The NYPD and the Police Benevolent Association had called for strong condemnation after officers were struck by snowballs thrown by a crowd of thousands who had gathered in the park following the blizzard. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the behavior “disgraceful.” Mamdani declined to use that language, saying that what he saw was a snowball fight that got out of hand, and that it should be treated accordingly. The PBA called his response a failure of leadership. Tisch reaffirmed at an NYPD promotion ceremony that she would not tolerate attacks on her officers, period. Mamdani said the two continued to have a positive working relationship. The tensions reflect a structural reality of his administration: he retained a commissioner who disagrees with him on policing culture and rhetoric, and neither appears willing to fully yield to the other.
A Test of Pragmatism
Taken together, the week’s events offered an early stress test of Mamdani’s approach to governing. He is a mayor who ran on values that put him at odds with both the federal government and the city’s law enforcement unions, yet he sought a meeting with the president and retained the police commissioner. His supporters see that as strategic flexibility. His critics see it as inconsistency. The Urban Institute has documented the complex dynamics between city governments and federal administrations in policy areas ranging from immigration to housing. The Mamdani-Trump dynamic is among the most unusual in recent American political history and is being watched closely by mayors and progressives across the country.
