Mamdani flatters Trump with a gift, scores freedom for Ellie Aghayeva, the Columbia student detained by ICE
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Mamdani flatters Trump with a gift, scores freedom for Ellie Aghayeva, the Columbia student detained by ICE")
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, US President Donald Trump Photograph: (X/NYCMayor)
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani brought an unusual present for Donald Trump to the White House, along with a request tied to an ICE detention. What was the gift and did it work?
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani showed up at the White House on Thursday (Feb 26) with a carefully chosen gift for President Donald Trump. The offering, which was clearly designed to appeal to Trump’s ego, came with an appeal: for the POTUS to intervene in the case of Ellie Aghayeva, a Columbia University student who had been detained earlier by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. So, what was the gift? Did it work? All you need to know.
What did Mamdani give Trump?
Zohran Mamdani gave Donald Trump a mocked-up New York Daily News front page praising Trump’s support for housing in the city. The graphic featured a stoic photo of the president with the headline, “Trump to City: Let’s Build.”
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Alongside it, Mamdani presented a very different piece of history. The original 1975 Daily News cover that once declared “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”
By all accounts, it worked. The president appeared to take to it immediately. A picture shared by Mamdani on X shows Trump grinning from ear to ear while showing off the two newspapers.
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Ellie Aghayeva freed
Mamdani later described the Oval Office conversation as "productive". In a post on X, he said he was "looking forward to building more housing in New York City" with Trump.
During the meeting, the mayor also raised the case of Ellie Aghayeva, a Columbia University student detained earlier that day by federal immigration agents from her dorm. Mamdani asked Trump to consider her release. Soon after, he said the president agreed in a follow-up call.
29-year-old Aghayeva later posted online that she was safe and heading home.
Mamdani’s office confirmed that he also shared a list of four additional detained students with Trump and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, requesting that their cases also be reviewed.
