President Trump and Zohran Mamdani’s surprisingly friendly meeting
USA TODAY’s Joey Garrison analyzes a surprisingly friendly meeting between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani shared in a social media post he and his wife will move into Gracie Mansion, the historic home of the city’s top leader along the East River.
Mamdani, 34, announced his decision to move there in an Instagram post on Dec. 8, along with a photo of a miniature replica of the mansion that appears at the New York Botanical Garden.
“Went to the NY Botanical Garden’s train show last week, and saw our new home!” he wrote. “My wife Rama and I have made the decision to move into Gracie Mansion in January.”
He said he is making the move for safety reasons and to dedicate “all of my focus on enacting the affordability agenda New Yorkers voted for.”
Though it’s customary for the city’s mayor to live at the Upper East Side home, it will be a significant change for Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji. The pair has lived for several years in Astoria, Queens, in a one-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment. His living situation became a heated topic of conversation during the campaign, which his rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, attacked him over, claiming his $142,000 state assembly salary was too much for him to occupy a rent-stabilized unit. Cuomo once lived in a rent-stabilized unit himself, the New York Times reported.
Mamdani made affordability central to his successful bid for mayor and has advocated for a rent freeze on the city’s approximately one million rent-stabilized units.
Gracie Mansion is 226 years old and is one of the oldest remaining wood buildings across the five boroughs. It spans more than 10,000 square feet, has five bedrooms, a ballroom and a scenic view of the East River. It will also mark a significant neighborhood change for the incoming mayor, who has resided in Queens for several years, including during his four-year term as a New York state assemblyman representing Astoria.
“We will miss much about our home in Astoria. Cooking dinner side by side in our kitchen, sharing a sleepy elevator ride with our neighbors in the evening, hearing music and laughter vibrate through the walls of the apartment,” Mamdani wrote. “To Astoria: thank you for showing us the best of New York City.”
Gracie Mansion became the official residence of the New York City mayor in 1942, when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and his family moved in. Billionaire former Mayor Michael Bloomberg famously declined to live in the mansion, opting instead to live in his own large uptown apartment and opening the home to public use.
Mamdani will be sworn in to office on New Year’s Day.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
