Overview
- In an unannounced Oval Office meeting, Mayor Zohran Mamdani pitched decking over Queens’ 180-acre Sunnyside Yards to build roughly 12,000 homes, presenting President Donald Trump with a mock Daily News cover to sell the idea.
- City Hall’s request seeks about $21 billion in federal grants for a neighborhood-scale buildout including parks, schools and clinics, with 6,000 units under the Mitchell‑Lama program and an estimated 30,000 union jobs.
- Mamdani said Trump was interested in continuing talks, but there are no binding commitments from the administration and the project remains at an exploratory stage.
- Local Council Member Julie Won criticized the federal-first approach and insisted any plan begin with community engagement and ULURP, while the project still needs consent from Amtrak and the MTA and other federal authorizations.
- During the visit, Mamdani raised the ICE detention of Columbia student Ellie Aghayeva; the mayor said Trump later told him she would be released, and lawyers say among four other named students, only Leqaa Kordia remains in custody.