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Welcome to The Logoff: Up to now, so good for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s delicate relationship with President Donald Trump.
What’s taking place? Mamdani visited the White Home on Thursday, not less than partially to debate plans to construct new housing in New York Metropolis. Within the course of, he efficiently secured the discharge of Ellie Aghayeva, a Columbia College scholar detained by federal immigration enforcement; Mamdani wrote in a submit Thursday afternoon that Trump had stated Aghayeva can be launched instantly.
Why does this matter? Aghayeva’s fast launch is placing, given the Trump administration’s reluctance to offer floor on lots of its different excessive immigration actions, together with the March 2025 arrest of a former Columbia scholar, lawful US resident Mahmoud Khalil, for his involvement in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia. (Mamdani reportedly additionally raised Khalil’s identify, in addition to others, with Trump’s chief of workers.)
Aghayeva was arrested early on Thursday morning after ICE brokers reportedly entered her university-owned constructing beneath false pretenses and and not using a judicial warrant — a probable unconstitutional follow that reporting suggests has turn into widespread ICE coverage beneath Trump.
What’s the context? Mamdani, who took workplace in January, has been remarkably profitable at navigating an advanced relationship with the White Home. The 2 had a strikingly heat assembly in November following Mamdani’s runaway election win, the place Trump beamed and instructed reporters, “Hopefully, you’ll have a very nice mayor.”
In a photograph shared by Mamdani on Thursday, Trump was once more all smiles as he held up a mocked-up entrance web page for the New York Every day Information, studying “Trump to metropolis: Let’s construct.” (Little question a very interesting prospect to Trump, a local New Yorker who obtained his begin as a builder.)
And with that, it’s time to log out…
Right here’s some excellent news from the New York Occasions’s David Wallace-Wells: Regardless of loads of unhealthy local weather information prior to now yr, the inexperienced vitality transition remains to be successful out — even within the US. You may learn his full, encouraging article right here with a present hyperlink. Have an awesome night, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!
