In Oval Office Visit, Mamdani Trots Out the Tabloids

New York's meme mayor just took his skills to the Oval Office. Zohran Mamdani showed up at the White House on Thursday with a made-for-Trump souvenir: two mocked-up New York Daily News covers, one vintage and one aspirational, per the New York Times. The first was the 1975 classic "Ford to City: Drop Dead," a reminder of the city's fiscal-crisis snub by President Ford as the Big Apple flirted with bankruptcy. The second was tailored to the current president's love of his own name on the side of buildings: "Trump to City: Let's Build." Staffers had spent days workshopping the new headline and faking the tabloid's look, down to—but not quite nailing—its old font.

Mamdani presented the pages toward the end of his meeting with the president; a photo later posted on social media shows Trump grinning as he hoists them both, a throwback to his tabloid-star days. The Democratic socialist mayor and the MAGA standard-bearer may be far apart on policy and persona, but both are steeped in New York media theatrics. It remains to be seen whether the stunt actually advances Mamdani's push for more federal help on housing, though one Mamdani aide said that Trump was "very enthusiastic" about the mayor's housing ideas, per the AP.