Nov. 21, 2025 - The Benny Show - Benny Johnson
27:49
Participants
| 
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Country. | ||
| We're doing even better now. | ||
| We're doing much better now than we did even the first term, and I can tell you some of my views have changed and we we had discussions on some things. | ||
| I'm not going to discuss what they were, but that I feel very confident that he can do a very good job, I think. | ||
| I think he's going to be. | ||
| I think he is going to surprise some conservative people actually, and some very liberal people. | ||
| He won't surprise him because they already like him. | ||
| And uh, mr Mantan uh, it sounds like you had a productive discussion uh, but just days ago, you referred to president Trump as a despot who had betrayed the country. | ||
| You said uh, you'd be his worst nightmare and accused him of having a fascist agenda. | ||
| Um, are you claiming to retract any of these remarks in order to improve your relationship? | ||
| I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views. | ||
| And what I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers. | ||
| And frankly, that is something that could transform the lives of eight and a half million people who are currently struggling under a cost of living crisis with one in four living in poverty. | ||
| And the meeting came back again and again to what it could look like to lift those New Yorkers out of struggle and start to deliver them to city. | ||
| that they could do more than just struggle to afford it but actually start to live in it. | ||
| And i've been called much worse than a despot, so it's not, it's not that insulting. | ||
| Maybe I think he'll change his mind after we get to working together. | ||
| Yes, please. | ||
| Mr president, Anthony Mashad from MTV Lebanon I, I would like to ask you a question about the Middle East, regarding you did said that Hezboll and Lebanon is not in a good position and Lebanon now is the final unresolved after Gaza and Syria. | ||
| Given your assessment like, what do you say for the Lebanese? | ||
| Today it's the independence day in Lebanon and what is your next move? | ||
| To push toward disarmam, the disarmament of Hezbolle. | ||
| We are pushing for total disarmament of Hamas and frankly, everybody else, and we actually have peace in the Middle East. | ||
| As you know, the king of Saudi Arabia just left yesterday. | ||
| We had some great meetings and he's uh made a contribution toward the United States of more than a trillion dollars. | ||
| We have now over 20 trillion dollars coming into. | ||
| No country has ever had anything like that, not even close. | ||
| If you go to two trillion or one trillion, it's a lot. | ||
| We have 20 or 21 trillion dollars uh, I think that uh, Hezbollah has been a problem in Lebanon, big problem. | ||
| We're working with Lebanon, we're working with everybody in the Middle East. | ||
| That's another thing I think we have in common. | ||
| We want to see peace in the Middle East and we actually have now, for the first time, peace in the Middle East after 3 000 years, and now we're going to refine it and I think you're going to see some very positive things happening. | ||
| That has the potential to invite the Lebanese president to lead you to the White House. | ||
| I would. | ||
| I would do that absolutely. | ||
| And if the mayor would like to be here for that meeting, because I know he feels very strongly I think you feel very, very strongly about peace in the Middle East. | ||
| We desperately want it and that's something that I shared with the president that when I spoke to New Yorkers who had voted for the president last november on Hillside Avenue and Fordham Road, I asked them why. | ||
| I heard again and again two major reasons. | ||
| One Was that they wanted an end to forever wars. | ||
| They wanted an end to the taxpayer dollars we had funding violations of human rights. | ||
| And they wanted to address the cost of living crisis. | ||
| And I appreciated the chance to discuss both of those things. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You said a lot of my voters actually voted for him. | |
| And I'm okay with that. | ||
| I'll do that. | ||
| I'll sign it. | ||
| Give it to me, I'll sign it in a minute. | ||
| That's pretty good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, you've threatened to send federal troops to New York City. | |
| You both have differences when it comes to ICE agents in New York City. | ||
| Mr. Mondani, you've called ICE a rogue government entity. | ||
| I wonder how you reconcile your differences on both of those issues. | ||
| Well, I think we're going to work them out. | ||
| And I think that if we have known murderers and known drug dealers and some very bad people, you know, we want to get them out. | ||
| And the mayor wants to have peace. | ||
| We discussed this at great length, actually, maybe more than anything else. | ||
| He wants to have a safe New York. | ||
| Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York. | ||
| If it's not safe, no matter how well we do with pricing and with anything else, we can talk about anything you want. | ||
| If you don't have safe streets, it's not going to be a success. | ||
| So we're going to work together. | ||
| We're going to make sure that if there are horrible people there, we want to get them out. | ||
| I think he wants to get them out maybe more than I do. | ||
| So we'll work together. | ||
| We discussed it at great length. | ||
| Yes, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, two questions, if I may, one for you, Mr. President, on BBC in a second. | |
| But first of all, for the mayor-elect, you're both from different parts of the political spectrum. | ||
| You're both populists, though. | ||
| And I just wonder to what extent the president's campaign style, his techniques, his social media use inspired any part of your campaign. | ||
| Well, I actually told the president that, you know, so much of the focus of our campaign has been on the cost of living crisis. | ||
| And when we asked those New Yorkers who had voted for the president, when we saw an increase in his numbers in New York City, that came back to the same issue: cost of living, cost of living, cost of living. | ||
| And they spoke about the cost of groceries, the cost of rent, the cost of Con Ed, the cost of child care. | ||
| And too often, politicians are looking to lecture to New Yorkers what they should care about as opposed to listen. | ||
| And when we spoke to those voters who voted for President Trump, we heard them speak about cost of living. | ||
| We focus on that same cost of living. | ||
| And that's where I am really looking forward to delivering for New Yorkers in partnership with the president on the affordability agenda. | ||
| And I think we have to work a little bit. | ||
| We're talking about Con Edison. | ||
| We have to work a little bit in getting the prices because, you know, we've gotten fuel prices way down, but it hasn't shown up in Con Edison. | ||
| And we're going to have to talk to them. | ||
| You know, if we're sending them fuel at a much lower price than it was a year ago, which is true, we have to get Con Edison to start lowering the rates. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And if I may, last week you told me you were pushing ahead with your plans to sue the BDC for up to $5 billion. | |
| You're going to speak to Prime Minister Starmer as well. | ||
| Is there any progress or any updates on those issues? | ||
| Well, we get along very well with the Prime Minister. | ||
| We made a deal with UK. | ||
| I like him. | ||
| He's a fine person. | ||
| And, you know, I think they have some big energy problems. | ||
| You know, they've got windmills all over the place. | ||
| They're going to have to start using other methods because their energy is out of control. | ||
| Talking about in the UK, it's out of control. | ||
| And he's got that problem. | ||
| He's got a big immigration problem, as you know, and he's got a big energy problem. | ||
| And we talk about he's a good man. | ||
| Prime Minister is a good man. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You have a chance to speak this week. | |
| I haven't spoken this week. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Have you spoken to President Zelensky or do you intend to meet with them, President Zelensky, about your plan? | |
| Are you going to meet with them? | ||
| I've spoken with their people. | ||
| We have a plan. | ||
| It's horrible what's happening. | ||
| It's a war that should have never happened. | ||
| It would have never happened if I was president. | ||
| And it's a shame. | ||
| And I thought they should have acted quicker. | ||
| But it's a cold winter and a lot of the, you talk about utilities, but a lot of the big energy producing plants have been under attack, to put it mildly, to put it nicely. | ||
| Yeah, we have a way of getting peace, or we think we have a way of getting peace. | ||
| He's going to have to approve it. | ||
| Just so sad. | ||
| So many people, you know, last month they lost 25,000 soldiers. | ||
| This is something we haven't seen anything like this since the Second World War. | ||
| And they're averaging six or seven thousand a week between the two of them, dead soldiers. | ||
| And it goes on and on. | ||
| And I think they're getting reasonably close, but it's, I don't want to predict, I would have said that would have been one of my early ones. | ||
| I did eight peace deals of countries, including India, Pakistan. | ||
| You could even go, in fact, they're coming here in a week or two, go to the Congo and Rwanda. | ||
| That was one, 10 million people dead. | ||
| And we worked something out on that, but so many. | ||
| And the one I thought would have been for me, because I have a very good relationship with President Putin, I thought that would have been maybe quicker. | ||
| But it does take two to tango. | ||
| And now you just see all the death. | ||
| And, you know, it doesn't affect us other than the fact that we don't want to see all those people that really, it's on the other side of the ocean. | ||
| It's a war that should have never happened. | ||
| It did happen. | ||
| I blame the person also sitting right behind this desk. | ||
| This is a war that should have never happened. | ||
| And it wouldn't have happened if I were president. | ||
| But we're trying to save a lot of lives. | ||
| They're losing 25, think of that, 25,000 lives over the last short period of time. | ||
| That's Ukrainian and Russian. | ||
| And it's a shame. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to ask the mayor-elect about a House resolution just passed overwhelmingly to condemn socialism, including with 86 Democrats, all of House Dem leadership, and the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, despite his endorsement of you. | |
| What's your reaction to that? | ||
| I have to be honest with you, I focus very little on resolutions. | ||
| Frankly, I've been focusing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've condemned socialism. | |
| I understand. | ||
| I think the focus is on the work at hand. | ||
| I can tell you I am someone who is a Democratic socialist. | ||
| I've been very open about that. | ||
| And I know there might be differences about ideology, but the place of agreement is the work that needs to be done to make New York City affordable. | ||
| That's what I look forward to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I want to clarify your answer to Stephen Nelson. | |
| He asked about your comment calling the president a fascist. | ||
| And your answer was, both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views. | ||
| Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist? | ||
| I've spoken about. | ||
| That's okay. | ||
| You could just say yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| It's easier. | ||
| It's easier than explaining it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't mind. | |
| I wanted to ask you also about this Ukraine plan. | ||
| President Zelensky said today that his country would risk either giving up a partner or giving up its dignity. | ||
| There's been criticism that this deal proposed. | ||
| It's unclear. | ||
| He was sort of tenuous about it. | ||
| He'll have to like it. | ||
| And if he doesn't like it, then they should just keep fighting, I guess. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The suggestion that he made, though, was that if he doesn't accept it, that the U.S. would pull back its support for Ukraine. | |
| Well, at some point, he's going to have to accept something. | ||
| He hasn't accepted. | ||
| You remember right in the Oval Office not so long ago, I said, you don't have the cards. | ||
| Don't forget, I inherited this war. | ||
| I would have never, this war never would have happened. | ||
| I inherited this war. | ||
| And I thought he should have made a deal a year ago, two years ago. | ||
| The ultimate deal would have been if it never started. | ||
| That would have been a good deal. | ||
| That could have been done too if you had the right president, but you didn't have the right president. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President. | |
| Mr. President, the cost of living is something that you and Mr. Mamdani seem to agree on. | ||
| Democrats have run New York City for a long time, Mr. Mondani. | ||
| Do you see Democrat policy specifically as being a problem? | ||
| And I'd like that be a question that both of you could answer in New York City. | ||
| Look, I think that there are many things in our city where we have to own the responsibility of it, things that existed long before the president was the president. | ||
| And those are also part of the message of our campaign was to take on a broken politics of the past. | ||
| And I ran against a number of candidates who represented different versions of that past. | ||
| And what we found time and again is that working people were left behind in the politics of our city. | ||
| And what we're looking to do is put those people right back at the heart of our politics so that we don't have a situation where we're in the wealthiest city in the history of the world and yet one in five can't even afford $2.90 for a metro card. | ||
| Mr. Lazar, you know, we had some interesting conversation and some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have. | ||
| But a big thing on cost, you know, the new word is affordability. | ||
| Another word is just groceries. | ||
| It's sort of an old-fashioned word, but it's very accurate. | ||
| And they're coming down, they're coming down. | ||
| They were, you know, we had both of us, we had the highest inflation in the history of our country the last four years under the Biden administration. | ||
| And we've got inflation down now to a normal number. | ||
| It's going to go even a little bit lower than that. | ||
| Katie, do you have something that I think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, thank you so much. | |
| Mr. Momdani often talks about New York City being covered by international law, that they will follow international law. | ||
| Doesn't often talk about the U.S. Constitution. | ||
| What is your response to that? | ||
| Well, I don't know what you're referring to in terms of it can be covered by international law and local law. | ||
| It's covered by a lot of laws, but it's covered by U.S. law. | ||
| Are you referring to anything in particular? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He just says that they're a city that endorses and enforces international law. | |
| Is that at odds with the U.S.? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Would you want to have you want to respond? | ||
| Yeah, I think what I've shared with the president is our desire to not only follow the laws of our own city, laws that protect New Yorkers, but also a desire for consistency in our politics across the board. | ||
| And that's something that we've talked about and something that I know many New Yorkers want. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We work with ICE. | |
| We work with ICE. | ||
| We discussed ICE and New York City, and I spoke about how the laws that we have in New York City allow for New York City government to speak to the federal administration for about 170 serious crimes. | ||
| The concerns that many New Yorkers have are around the enforcement of immigration laws on New Yorkers across the five boroughs. | ||
| And most recently, we're talking about a mother and her two children, how this has very little to do with what that is. | ||
| We discuss crime more than ICE per se. | ||
| We discuss crime. | ||
| And he doesn't want to see crime. | ||
| And I don't want to see crime. | ||
| And I have very little doubt that we're not going to get along on that issue. | ||
| He wants to, and he said some things that were very interesting, very interesting as to housing construction. | ||
| And he wants to see houses go up. | ||
| He wants to see a lot of houses created, a lot of apartments built, etc. | ||
| And, you know, we actually, people would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Melko, the anti-Israel protesters. | |
| Mr. Mundo, I want to know one of the policies as well that Mayor Alec Mandami talked a number of times about on the campaign was shifting the tax burden for property taxes from what he called minority communities to white-based communities and putting more taxes on white people. | ||
| I also noticed that in your acceptance speech, you didn't mention, didn't mention anything about America or Christians or white people in general. | ||
| And so I didn't know if that was one of the policies that you guys had spoken about. | ||
| We focused on affordability. | ||
| We focused on the cost of living crisis. | ||
| What I will say is that I am very much interested in property tax reform because what we see right now in New York City is a system that is so inequitable that it can't even stand up in court. | ||
| And the president and I spoke about the importance of not only building more housing, but also making sure that regulation of housing is something that is manageable to actually get through and not the cause of yet another weight that we see in our city. | ||
| continuing this idea of race-based property taxes. | ||
| No, to be very clear. | ||
| No, the use of the term was a description of neighborhoods, not a description of intent. | ||
| So you intend to tax the whiter neighborhoods more? | ||
| No, we intend to create a fair property tax system because we want a New York City that is not only fair and equitable, but also one that every New York can afford. | ||
| Mr. Montani, anti-Israel protesters just targeted a synagogue in New York. | ||
| Are you concerned about Jewish New Yorkers feeling welcome and safe in the city? | ||
| And President Trump, you've threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City. | ||
| What policies would prompt you to do that? | ||
| Would that be city-run grocery stores? | ||
| Would it be something else? | ||
| Well, I think if we didn't get along, whether it's cut off or just make it a little bit difficult or not give as much, we want to see, I use the term, we don't want good money going after bad. | ||
| We just don't want that to happen. | ||
| I don't think that's going to happen. | ||
| I did say that, you know, subject to what policies are being said. | ||
| We had a meeting today that actually surprised me. | ||
| He wants to see no crime. | ||
| He wants to see housing being built. | ||
| He wants to see rents coming down, all things that I agree with. | ||
| Now, we may disagree how we get there. | ||
| The rent coming down, I think one of the things I really gleaned very much today, he'd like to see him come down, ideally, by building a lot of additional housing. | ||
| That's the ultimate way. | ||
| He agrees with that, and so do I. | ||
| But if I read the newspapers and the stories, I don't hear that, but I heard him say it today, and I think that's a very positive step. | ||
| No, I don't expect, I expect to be helping him, not hurting him, a big help, because I want New York City to be great. | ||
| Look, I love New York City. | ||
| It's where I come from. | ||
| I spent a lot of years there. | ||
| Now I'm right here. | ||
| We took a big setback with a mayor that we had, Dave De Blasio. | ||
| I thought it was a tremendous setback for the city. | ||
| I think this mayor can do some things that are going to be really great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Mr. President, you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. President. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're a billionaire. | |
| You have a different address nowadays than you used to, but you used to call New York City home. | ||
| Would you feel comfortable living in New York City under a Mamdani administration? | ||
| Especially after the meeting. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What makes you comfortable? | |
| We agree on a lot more than I would have thought. | ||
| I think he's, I want him to do a great job and we'll help him do a great job. | ||
| You know, he may have different views, but in many ways, you know, we were discussing when Bernie Sanders was out of the race, I picked up a lot of his votes and people had no idea because he was strong on not getting ripped off in trade and lots of the things that I've practiced and been very successful on. | ||
| Tariffs, a lot of things. | ||
| Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought. | ||
| And when he was put out of the race, I think quite unfairly, if you want to know the truth, many of the Bernie Sanders voters voted for me. | ||
| And I felt very comfortable, frankly, in seeing that and saying that. | ||
| And, you know, it just turned out to be a statistical truth. | ||
| But no, I feel very comfortable. | ||
| I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York. | ||
| And I think much more so after the meeting. | ||
| Yes, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. President. | |
| I have a question for you, but a very quick one for the mayor. | ||
| Why did you fly here? | ||
| Aren't trains greener? | ||
| I'll use every form of transit, and I want to make sure that they're all affordable in New York City. | ||
| And that's why making buses fast and free is a centerpiece of our children. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's a bus that goes. | |
| I know, but it'd be fluid. | ||
| That's a lot quicker, too. | ||
| You know, I mean, he's working very hard for him to be, that's a long, that's a very, that's a very long drive. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll stick up for you. | |
| You know, the plane takes you 30 minutes and driving takes you almost. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, I was wondering if you could clear up some confusion around a Washington Post report. | |
| There was this explosive report that the Coast Guard is no longer going to characterize swastikas and nooses as hate symbols. | ||
| DHS called that a lie and fake news. | ||
| Can you clear up that? | ||
| I don't know anything about it. | ||
| When was this written? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think yesterday. | |
| Well, look, the Coast Guard's an incredible group of people. | ||
| I know them very well. | ||
| We just ordered a lot of new Coast Guard cutters, beautiful, the most magnificent ship. | ||
| They look like yachts with lots of guns on them. | ||
| So I don't know. | ||
| I haven't seen any report like that, but certainly we want them to remain a great force, and they are. | ||
| And you did the peace in all the nine months. | ||
| I don't do it. | ||
| I would like to ask, Mr. Mamdani, you've accused the U.S. government of committing genocide in Gaza while President Trump was working on peace. | ||
| Why that? | ||
| I've spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide, and I've spoken about our government funding it. | ||
| And I shared with the president in our meeting about the concern that many New Yorkers have of wanting their tax dollars to go towards the benefit of New Yorkers and their ability to afford basic dignity. | ||
| And what we see right now is we're in the ninth consecutive year of more than 100,000 school children being homeless in our city. | ||
| And there's a desperate need not only for the following of human rights, but also the following through on the promises we've made New Yorkers. | ||
| And I appreciated the meeting we had and the work that we can do. | ||
| Do you agree that President Trump did do a peace and work hard to make the peace because he worked hard to do the peace in the Middle East and everywhere? | ||
| Do you agree with that? | ||
| I appreciate all efforts towards peace. | ||
| And I shared with President Trump that when I spoke to Trump voters on Hillside Avenue, including one of whom was a pharmacist that spoke about how President Trump's father actually went to that pharmacy not too far from Jamaica States, that people were tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars. | ||
| And I also believe that we have to follow through on the international human rights. | ||
| And I know that still today, those are being violated. | ||
| And that continues to be work that has to be done no matter where we're speaking of. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Mr. Protector, Mr. President, do you view the mayor-elect as the true leader of the Democrat Party? | |
| And do you think leadership is in leadership, you know, have to follow his lead? | ||
| Well, look, I hope they have great leaders. | ||
| This is a man that right now I think is focused in New York City. | ||
| I really think he has a chance to do a great job. | ||
| We're going to help him, but I really think he has a chance to do a great job. | ||
| But I'll let you answer that. | ||
| You consider yourself the leader of the Democrats. | ||
| I think it's more appropriate for him. | ||
| I consider myself the next mayor of New York City, and I keep my horizons firmly on New York City. | ||
| And I appreciate the meeting with the president, which focused again on the five boroughs and whether New Yorkers could afford to live there. | ||
| By the way, being the mayor of New York City is a big deal. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| I always said, you know, one of the things I would love to be someday is the mayor of New York City, being the mayor of New York, and especially now, because I think you're at really a turning point, one way or the other. | ||
| It could go great or it can go in a different direction. | ||
| And I think you really have a chance to make it great. | ||
| I appreciate what you say. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, you say you love New York City. | |
| Mr. Mondani, does New York City love President Trump? | ||
| New York City loves a future that is affordable. | ||
| And I can tell you that there were more New Yorkers who voted for President Trump in the most recent presidential election because of that focus on cost of living. | ||
| And I'm looking forward to working together to deliver on that affordability agenda. | ||
| I got a lot of votes. | ||
| One more. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| One or two more. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up. | ||
| You know, I've had a lot of meetings with the heads of major countries. | ||
| Nobody cared. | ||
| This meeting that you people have gone, you know, outside you have hundreds of people waiting. | ||
| This is just a small little group. | ||
| For some reason, the press has found this to be a very interesting meeting. | ||
| The biggest people in the world, they come over from countries, nobody cares, but they did care about this meeting. | ||
| And it was a great meeting. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, Mr. President, I was going to ask you exactly that. | |
| Why do you think there's so much more, you know, so much excitement around this city in some form? | ||
| Because I think he's different. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I think he's different. | ||
| And that can be in a very positive way. | ||
| I think he's different than your typical guy, runs, wins, becomes mayor maybe, and nothing exciting, because he has a chance to really do something great for New York. | ||
| New York is at a very critical point, and he does need the help of the federal government to really succeed. | ||
| And we're going to be helping him. | ||
| But he's different than your average candidate. | ||
| Hey, he came out of nowhere. | ||
| said he has a great campaign manager standing over there. | ||
| He came out of he came out of nowhere. | ||
| What did you start off at one or two? | ||
| And then I watched. | ||
| I said, who is this guy? | ||
| He was at one, then he was at three, then he was at five, then he was at nine. | ||
| And he went up to 17. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I said, hmm, that's getting a little bit interesting, right? | |
| And then all of a sudden he wins a primary that nobody expected he was going to win. | ||
| It's a great, a great tribute. | ||
| It's an amazing thing that he did. | ||
| I'm sorry, I'll just add one thing to what the president said is one thing I also appreciated is in our meeting to appreciate a portrait of FDR and the incredible work that was done with the New Deal and also in thinking about what it can look like when the federal government and New York City government work together to deliver on affordability. | ||
| It can be transformative. | ||
| You know, we have a great portrait of FDR that I found in the vaults that was missing for years. | ||
| I found it and I put it up. | ||
| He's a Democrat to the best of my knowledge. | ||
| He's a Democrat. | ||
| And when the mayor saw that portrait, he said, sir, do you mind if I have a picture taken by that portrait? | ||
| It's an amazing portrait. | ||
| I hope the picture comes out good. | ||
| But it's an amazing portrait in the cabinet room. | ||
| So he's a big fan of the New Deal, I guess, and of FDR. | ||
| Yes, ma'am. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. President. | |
| You said that you both spoke about crime. | ||
| There are many police officers set to come off the rolls at the end of this year in New York City. | ||
| Are you going to allow those police to be replaced with police officers, actual cops? | ||
| And are you going to require that that happens? | ||
| Would there be some consequence if that staff? | ||
| But again, that's going to be ultimately the mayor's decision. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What's your answer? | |
| Is that I look forward to delivering public safety with the NYPD. | ||
| And I've said over the course of our campaign that we have the number of police officers today, they are the ones that's budgeted about 35,000 headcount. | ||
| And I think the key thing is that we have to make it easier for police to focus on police work, not ask them to respond to 200,000 mental health calls a year. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So is that a reduction from what you're at right now? | |
| Are you committing to maintaining the same level of costs? | ||
| I've committed over the course of the campaign to maintain the 35,000. | ||
| That's the headcount that we had through the campaign. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Replace them with caseworkers, social workers. | |
| No, I've said that's the headcount that we want. | ||
| What we need to do is make sure they can focus on serious crime. | ||
| And he just retained a great police commissioner, I believe, right? | ||
| Yes, we did, Commissioner Payne. | ||
| If the newspapers are correct, that was a correct. | ||
| He retained, I think, somebody that is a good friend of some of the people in my family, of Ivanka, and they say she's really good, really competent. | ||
| And he just retained her, so that's a good sign. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, are there still topics that you see the two of you disagreeing on in the future? | |
| And do you think you'll have more meetings like this? | ||
| There will be topics that we disagree on. | ||
| I think we'll probably come to a conclusion. | ||
| And ultimately, he'll convince me or I'll convince him. | ||
| You know, it's for the good of New York. | ||
| Ultimately, it's for the good of New York. | ||
| I don't care about affiliations or parties or anything else. | ||
| I want to see if this city could be unbelievable, if he could be a spectacular success, I'd be very happy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think you might meet more in the future, too? | |
| Do you think you'll meet again in the future, you know, throughout the administration? | ||
| I think we will. | ||
| I think we will. | ||
| I hope we do. | ||
| I enjoyed the meeting. | ||
| We had a great meeting. | ||
| Please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Republican Elise Defonic has campaigned multiple times by calling Zora Mamdani a jihadist. | |
| Do you think you're standing next to a jihadist right now in the Oval Office? | ||
| No, I know, but she's out there campaigning. | ||
| And you say things sometimes in a campaign. | ||
| Isn't that sort of a case? | ||
| Very capable person but uh, you really have to ask her about that, but I don't particularly. | ||
| I think I met with a very I. | ||
| I met with a man who's a very rational person. | ||
| I met with a man who wants to see, really wants to see New York be great again. | ||
| And I can say again, because New York was great. | ||
| You know, when I came down to Washington initially uh, the city was so hot, it was doing great. | ||
| Uh, we were some having some telltale signs of problems. | ||
| We had a mayor that was not doing a great job but still it was moving along and uh, it went bad. | ||
| It really went, you know, pretty bad and he can. | ||
| I think it's been at lower points, but it went pretty bad. | ||
| I think he can bring it back now. | ||
| The question is, will he bring it back all the way will? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Will he bring Back greater than ever before? | |
| which is, I guarantee, that's his wish. | ||
| I think he wants to make it greater than ever before. | ||
| And if he can, we'll be out there cheering. | ||
| I'll be cheering for him. |
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