WASHINGTON

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that his White House meeting with President Donald Trump will focus on his city’s affordability crisis.

“I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than eight and a half million people who call this city home,” Mamdani said at a news conference, noting he has “many disagreements” with the president.

“We should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker.”

Mamdani said his disagreements with Trump and others are “signs of a healthy relationship,” emphasizing that leaders should welcome honesty rather than surround themselves with “people who are characterized by the quickness with which they can say yes.”

Citing criminal legal reform as one example, he criticized the state’s failure to release funding needed to implement Raise the Age legislation, which moved New York's criminal responsibility age from 16 to 18.

Trump announced Wednesday that he would host Mamdani at the Oval Office on Friday, referring to him as the “Communist Mayor of New York City” in a post on his social media platform.

Mamdani, 34, became the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the nation’s largest city after defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the mayoral election earlier this month, running on a progressive platform centered on affordability and expanded social services.

Throughout the campaign, Trump attacked the democratic socialist as a “communist” and threatened to cut federal funding to New York if Mamdani won.