On the menu today: President Trump is all smiles as he meets with Zohran Mamdani again, just as New York Republicans are trying to use the New York City mayor as a cautionary tale; what to expect from this week’s presidential summit with China’s Xi Jinping; and the state of Missouri still isn’t 100 percent sure what the district lines for November’s House elections will be. Read on.
So Much for the Cautionary Tale
The president of the United States, Monday, standing alongside the current mayor of New York City, at Gracie Mansion:
President Trump: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I’ve been at Gracie Mansion. . . . And it sort of feels like a home and it’s a special place, a very special, uh, a beautiful place when you go inside. And I’ve seen it with numerous different mayors . . . some great ones and some not-so-great ones.
So hopefully you’re gonna be a great one. I’ll be able to say you’re gonna be a great one. . . . So I just, uh, wanna thank the mayor for the invitation. I’m in New York to do the United Nations tomorrow. I have a lot of meetings right now today . . . very important meetings with heads of different countries. But, uh, this is like a little bit of old home week for me ’cause so many things, we’ve done so many things from the beautiful home, or house, or building standing right behind me. Uh, and if you have any questions, we’d love to take them. Thank you. . . .
Q: Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, this is the first time that a sitting president has visited Gracie Mansion in decades. Mr. President, on the way here, you posted that this is one of your favorite places in the world. Why is that? And Mr. Mayor, what did you show the president and what did you wanna see?
Trump: Well, I can say from my standpoint, I love New York and this represents New York. This is where the mayor lives and, uh, continues to live. And, uh, we were discussing it a long time ago when you first got elected. I said, “Well, you’re gonna move because you were maybe having some doubts about moving in because it is a little bit on the luxurious side.” And I said, “When you’re the mayor, you have to live there.” So, uh, and he’s done that. And it was very nice inside, beautifully kept. And, but it’s a very, very, uh, representative place of New York. Very important place.
This was the first time a U.S. president has visited Gracie Mansion since Ronald Reagan did so in 1981, presenting an oversized, novelty check for $85 million earmarked for the Westway development to New York Governor Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Trump’s presidencies have overlapped with the mayoral terms of Bill de Blasio, Eric Adams, and now Mamdani. He’s only visited Mamdani at the mansion; while Trump met with de Blasio and Adams, he never held a joint press conference with either predecessor. In fact, this was Trump’s second press conference with Mamdani, after one in the Oval Office in November.
While the two men discussed Sunnyside Yard, a rail yard in Queens that serves Amtrak, LIRR, and New Jersey Transit, Trump had no pressing need to meet face to face with Mamdani, nor to hold a joint press conference with him.
There are at least three competitive U.S. House races in the New York City area. In New York’s third congressional district, incumbent Democrat Tom Suozzi is facing Republican Mike LiPetri. In New York’s fourth congressional district, incumbent Democrat Laura Gillen is taking on Republican Jeanine Driscoll. And in New York’s 17th district, Republican incumbent Mike Lawler is taking on Democrat Cait Conley.
And guess what the GOP messaging in these races are focusing on as a cautionary tale to voters?
LiPetri’s message: “Tom Suozzi has been in office for decades and all he has to show for it is a record of raising taxes, voting with the socialists 90 percent of the time, and the millions he’s made trading stocks while in Congress. New York is on the wrong path under Hochul/Mamdani/Suozzi!”
Joseph Cairo, the longtime chair of the Nassau County Republican Party, to Bloomberg in August:
Cairo also said he’ll deploy a formidable Nassau County GOP volunteer machine after Labor Day to remind voters of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and unpopular policies.
“People are afraid of what’s going on in the city, and the impetus is: We’ve got to stop this,” he said. “The world is upside down.”
Here’s yesterday’s New York Post:
Hudson Valley GOP Rep. Mike Lawler has accused Dem foe Cait Conley of being a carpetbagger in sync with fellow lefties unpopular in his district, from Gov. Kathy Hochul to Big Apple Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“It’s safe to say Hochul, Mamdani, [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and [Sen. Chuck] Schumer will be making appearances in our advertising,” Lawler recently told The Post editorial board.
And Mamdani has become one of the central lines of Republican attack in the governor’s race. GOP nominee and Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman has tied Governor Kathy Hochul to Mamdani repeatedly. Again, the New York Post:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman pushed to link his Democratic opponent Kathy Hochul to socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani in new campaign mailers targeting voters outside the Big Apple.
“Say No to Socialism. Say No to Hochul and Mamdani,” said a Blakeman campaign/state-Republican Party mailer sent to suburban households in Westchester County.
The mailer accuses Hochul of using state taxpayer dollars to implement “Mamdani’s socialist agenda.”
So, at the exact time that Republicans are pointing to Mamdani as a cautionary tale of voting for Democrats and enacting socialism, President Trump chose to go to Gracie Mansion and hold a smiling joint press conference with the mayor, declaring, “Hopefully you’re gonna be a great one. I’ll be able to say you’re gonna be a great one. . . .”
But don’t worry; I’m sure the messaging from the president will be better later this week, when he hosts Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
What Xi Jinping Wants Out of This Week’s Summit
Speaking of that summit meeting, Reuters reports that Xi Jinping is expected to press Trump to halt U.S. arms sales to Taiwan at the upcoming meeting.
In 1982, the U.S. made “Six Assurances” to Taiwan, including a pledge that “the United States would not consult with China in advance before making decisions about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.” Currently, $14 billion in proposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are being held up by the administration.
The New York Times reported Monday, “Some Taiwanese officials who have traveled to the United States have also been told by Trump administration officials to curtail their visits to research groups in Washington.”
Hey, remember that prime-time Oval Office address when President Trump declared, “Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files. . . . This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project.”
And then absolutely nothing happened? What didn’t get nearly as much attention was Trump’s subsequent conclusion that “China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then”:
QUESTION: Mr. President, are you planning on putting any pressure or consequences on China for what you announced about them meddling in the 2020 election?
TRUMP: Well, we’re going to talk to them about it. It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then. But, look, they’re — they do things and we do things to them. I’ll be honest. We do things to them, too. It’s not a one-way street. But we’ll be talking to them, yes.
Is the president contending that the Xi Jinping of 2026 is less hostile to American interests and U.S. geopolitical power and influence than the Xi Jinping of 2020?
Meanwhile, in Missouri . . .
This seems like an exceptionally late date for the state of Missouri to finalize the U.S. House district lines for the midterm elections:
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Missouri must use the congressional map passed by Republicans in 2025 for the Nov. 3 election, but the decision was put on hold for a week — leaving election officials to proceed for now under the map they were already using.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its order just before 5 p.m. Monday, ruling the election in November must use the same district lines that were used in the Aug. 4 primary election. But the judges stayed the order until Sept. 28 to give opponents time to seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.
That means Monday’s ruling does not immediately change how the election will proceed. The first ballots went out Friday for overseas voters, and absentee voting begins Tuesday for people who are unable to make it to the polls on Election Day because of travel or mobility issues.
That’s from the Missouri Independent; the Missouri secretary of state’s office says, “From the second Tuesday before an election to the day before the election, you may vote a no-excuse absentee ballot in person at a location designated by your local election authority.” Election Day is November 3; the second Tuesday before the election would be October 20.
ADDENDUM: Over in the Washington Post, a look at what questions the Republicans will face after the midterms.
At this time two years ago, the U.S. vice president was weighed down by an octogenarian chief executive with a low job approval rating who rambled on about whatever popped into his head and couldn’t stay on message, and who had struggled with the inflation rate and Americans’ sense of a runaway cost of living.
Sound familiar, JD Vance?
The vice president and his predecessor, and their respective fan bases, would probably each insist that they’re nothing like the other. But Kamala Harris’s past predicament and Vance’s current one increasingly align. Appearing recently at the All-In Summit, Vance made his pitch for the midterms: “Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years, to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.”