‘You’re a going to be a great one’: Trump tells Mamdani he has ‘potential’ to be a great mayor and floats federal funds to his native Queens

President Donald Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani held a joint press conference at Gracie Mansion on Monday, the first time a sitting president has visited the mayor’s residence in decades.

The two discussed Sunnyside Yards, Temporary Protected Status for Haitian New Yorkers, and press access, while trading warm words despite months of public disagreement on policy.

And despite that public disagreement, the two Queens boys seem to have had a warm conversation.

Trump even shared praise for the young mayor.

“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 said.

“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 certainly got potential, had great potential.” The president, standing alongisde Mamdani as press and the two politicians stood in the garden of Gracie Mansion, said he was hosted many times at the famed house.

“I’ve been at Gracie Mansion, we were discussing, quite a few times over the years, a lot.

And it sort of feels like a home, and it’s a special place, a very special, a beautiful place when you go inside.

And I’ve seen it with numerous different mayors.” “And I said, some great ones and some not so great ones,” Trump continued before turning to Mamdani.

“So hopefully you’re going to be a great one.

I’ll be able to say you’re a going to be a great one.