Mamdani and Obama meet face-to-face in New York City

By Katherine Koretski, Gloria Pazmino, Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with former President Barack Obama on Saturday at a childcare center in the Bronx.

During their first in person meeting, Mamdani and Obama greeted children and parents inside the early childhood education center and joined a group of students who sat on the floor as Obama and Mamdani read to them from a children’s book.

“In between singing wheels on the bus, the two leaders discussed the Mayor’s vision for the City and the importance of giving New York’s Cutest the strongest start possible,” Mamdani press secretary Joe Calvello said in a statement.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, ran on a promise to create New York City’s first universal childcare program. As part of that effort, Mamdani’s administration has secured state funding to expand the current universal pre-K program across the city and to extend childcare for a limited number of two year olds beginning next fall.

Obama and Mamdani held a brief meeting in private prior to joining the classroom for the reading event, according to a source familiar with the planning. The person said Mamdani and Obama’s team had been eager to set up a meeting between both leaders since Mamdani’s election last November, and the opportunity came together in the last few days because Obama was expected to be in New York City this weekend.

Politico first reported news of the meeting.

Neither Obama or Mamdani took questions from reporters in the room, they briefly waved to cameras outside the childcare center as the left the building.

The two leaders spoke prior to Election Day in November, according to three sources familiar with the call. Obama told Mamdani during the call that many people would be watching to see how effectively a democratic socialist could run the nation’s largest city, and how many critics would be waiting to pounce if it went wrong. The former president also told Mamdani, whom he didn’t endorse during the 2025 election cycle, to prioritize making good hires to his administration.

The conversation gave Mamdani a clearer sense of the difference between running and governing, a source familiar with the call told CNN at the time.

Mamdani has met face-to-face with President Donald Trump twice. They held seemingly collegial Oval Office meetings last year and earlier this year. But Trump took to social media this week to write an all-caps post stating that Mamdani is “destroying” New York with his new pied-à-terre tax, which would require residents with second homes in the city valued over $5 million to face a surcharge.

Mamdani did not say whether he has spoken to Trump since the president’s social media post, but said he wasn’t surprised Trump disagreed with the policy.

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.