Zohran Mamdani just completed 100 days in the New York City Mayor’s office. When he took the lead in January of this year, he wrote the script. During those 100 days, Mamdani worked around the clock to deliver on several campaign promises – from a rent freeze to free buses and childcare.
Mamdani, a Democrat, has scored some notable early victories in the process and has achieved a detente — at least for now — with US President Donald Trump.
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Mamdani became the first Muslim mayor to take office in New York City. However, the celebrations quickly gave way to immediate tests as two winter storms created major challenges throughout the city.
The mayor insisted that the city remain operational and all streets be plowed, ABC News reported. Classes moved online for a day in the nation’s largest school district, allowing students to attend class from home during the height of the storm.
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Mamdani also announced a new initiative to accelerate the construction of affordable housing on city-owned land. Called Neighborhood Builders Fast Track, the program aims to speed development timelines. The mayor has already selected three locations owned by the city for rapid housing.
Universal childcare for two-year-olds is one of the main promises of the campaign, which Mamdani has already fulfilled and is set to launch this September. According to ABC News, city officials said the program is expected to save working parents about $20,000 per child.
Mamdani’s viral content creation
While many of these duties are typical of his local office — picking up trash, plowing snow and filling potholes — the 34-year-old mayor has relied on his knack for creating viral content to raise interest and awareness of government programs.
Along with New York Liberty star Natasha Cloud of the WNBA, Mamdani announced a bracket-style contest where people could vote on the small repairs they wanted the mayor to personally fix in their neighborhood. Over 21,000 votes were cast within a few weeks.
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And to boost his childcare program for 2-year-olds, Mamdani has recruited Cardi B to help judge a jingle contest that will determine the program’s theme song.
“The challenge we set for ourselves was to work as hard and as fast as New Yorkers do,” Mamdani told reporters on his 99th day in office this week.
Celebrity status
During the bitter cold, Mamdani’s surprise appearance on the “Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” was seen by some as insensitive at a time when the number of homeless New Yorkers was rising rapidly.
“Too much styling and profiling,” the AP quoted Curtis Sliw, a Republican who ran against Mamdani in last year’s election, as saying.
Meeting with Trump
During those 100 days, Mamdani has met with Trump twice in person since his election, with both meetings described as surprisingly cordial despite their political differences. The meeting focused on housing projects in Queens and federal funding.
While the two men criticized each other’s political positions and held radically different worldviews, their first meeting in November 2025 was unexpectedly friendly. The second meeting took place in February.
On February 26, Mamdani said: “I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon. I look forward to building more housing in New York.”
They talked about reducing housing prices. Trump, a former real estate developer, bristled at Mamdani’s call for more housing in New York, Reuters reported.
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During their second meeting, Mamdani said he raised concerns with Trump about the detention of Columbia University student Elmina Aghayev from Azerbaijan by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that Trump later informed him that she would be “released soon.”
The federal Department of Homeland Security subsequently said it had exonerated Aghayev and begun removal proceedings against her.
Mamdani names first trans woman in New York
Attorney Taylor Brown has become the first transgender person in history to lead an office or agency in New York. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order at Brooklyn’s Pride Community Center in Crown Heights to officially establish the mayor’s first-ever Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.
