Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined the late night lineup Monday, where he discussed his unlikely relationship with the president and the ongoing sewer mystery in New York City.
The mayor appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for the start of the host’s week of Brooklyn shows. He walked out onto the stage to rapturous applause.
“I live in Los Angeles and that is not the reception our mayor would get,” Kimmel joked. The talk show host introduced the mayor with a highlight reel of Republican pundits and politicians predicting “the end of New York” during Mamdani’s run for office.
“So, how is the complete and total destruction of New York going?” Kimmel asked.
“You know,” Mamdani said, “it’s proceeding as planned.
Kimmel asked the mayor about a number of the policies he’s rolled out during the first year of his term, including the “Parent’s Night Out” initiative, city-run grocery stores and the rollout of new public bathrooms.
“But I have one issue that I would like to take up,” Kimmel said before tossing to an NBC New York report on the bathrooms, highlighting the 10-minute time limit on the bathrooms.
“If four minutes was enough for Madonna to save the world, I think 10 minutes is enough to do your business,” the mayor replied.
The conversation eventually shifts to President Donald Trump and what Kimmel calls a “friendly” relationship between the two politicians.
“Did you guys hit it off immediately or is it something that you really went into thinking, ‘OK, I’m just going to need to have a relationship with the president of the United States and I think the best way to do it is to charm him’? How did you do that? And can you help me?” Kimmel asked.
“Sorry brother,” Mamdani said through laughs. “Look, the president and I have many disagreements. One thing we do agree on is this city, how much we love this city, so from that first meeting in November of last year, I was just thinking of ‘How we can make this meeting not about us, but about New Yorkers?’”
The two discussed Mamdani and Trump’s communication style, where Kimmel spent several minutes focused on what they talk about through text messages. Then, near the end of the segment, Kimmel asked if Mamdani would send the president of a selfie of him with the mayor.
Mamdani Refuses to Send Trump A Pic of Him and Jimmy Kimmel
