Mamdani gets props from de Blasio on managing Trump: 'That might actually work'

"I think it was just perfect to go down there and promote something that would capture Trump's imagination and do it in a fashion that was just hokey enough to appeal to Trump and that might actually work. I, in a million years, would never have thought to go to Donald Trump with this."

"I think Mamdani is a particular person who could approach Trump in a way that I probably wouldn't have been able to. That's a shift that has major implications for New York City beyond resuscitating the Sunnyside housing project de Blasio first proposed."

"De Blasio first proposed decking over the Sunnyside railyards and building 12,000 units of affordable housing in his 2015 State of the City address. He said in the very beginning, there was tremendous interest from Amtrak, which owns the yard."

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has demonstrated an effective approach to engaging with President Trump regarding a Sunnyside housing project, earning praise from former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mamdani presented Trump with a mock New York Daily News front page headlined "Trump to City: Let's Build," a creative pitch that de Blasio acknowledged was perfectly calibrated to appeal to Trump's sensibilities. De Blasio contrasted this with his own adversarial relationship with Trump, noting he would never have conceived such an approach. The Sunnyside project, originally proposed by de Blasio in 2015, aimed to develop 12,000 affordable housing units over Amtrak railyards. Initial interest from Amtrak existed, but the proposal faced opposition from elected officials and community members, with resistance intensifying following the failed Amazon headquarters proposal in Queens.

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