You can’t fault Mayor Mamdani for swinging for the fences and attempting to squeeze $21 billion out of President Trump to build 12,000 affordable apartments in Sunnyside, Queens. Slipping down to Washington, D.C., on an unannounced visit, the mayor flattered the president by presenting a mock newspaper front page portraying Trump as a visionary city-shaper (“TRUMP TO CITY: LET’S BUILD”) and pushed an audacious plan to construct a vast deck over the 182-acre Sunnyside Yards and build a new mini-neighborhood on top of it.

“To meet this moment, we need a true federal partner prepared to invest boldly and act urgently,” Mamdani said after the meeting. “I appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with President Trump about building more housing in any single project than our city has seen since 1973.” (For good measure, Mamdani used the occasion to enlist the president’s help in securing the release of a Columbia University undergraduate, Elmina Aghayeva, who’d been yanked out of her dormitory and detained by ICE agents.)

Mamdani is trying to exploit a bromance that has surprised and baffled pundits and the political class. The president’s warm treatment of the socialist mayor arguably becomes less mysterious if you follow the money: Trump, whose family and companies clocked an estimated $1.4 billion in profits over the last year — mostly from deals in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — probably recognizes that making nice with New York’s first Muslim mayor can........

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