Columbia pupil Aghayeva launched after Mamdani-Trump assembly.

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Welcome to The Logoff: To this point, so good for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s delicate relationship with President Donald Trump.

What’s taking place? Mamdani visited the White Home on Thursday, no less than partly to debate plans to construct new housing in New York Metropolis. Within the course of, he efficiently secured the discharge of Ellie Aghayeva, a Columbia College pupil detained by federal immigration enforcement; Mamdani wrote in a put up Thursday afternoon that Trump had stated Aghayeva can be launched instantly.

Why does this matter? Aghayeva’s fast launch is hanging, given the Trump administration’s reluctance to present floor on a lot of its different excessive immigration actions, together with the March 2025 arrest of a former Columbia pupil, lawful US resident Mahmoud Khalil, for his involvement in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia. (Mamdani reportedly additionally raised Khalil’s identify, in addition to others, with Trump’s chief of employees.)

Aghayeva was arrested early on Thursday morning after ICE brokers reportedly entered her university-owned constructing underneath false pretenses and with out a judicial warrant — a possible unconstitutional observe that reporting suggests has develop into widespread ICE coverage underneath Trump.

What’s the context? Mamdani, who took workplace in January, has been remarkably profitable at navigating an advanced relationship with the White Home. The 2 had a strikingly warm meeting in November following Mamdani’s runaway election win, the place Trump beamed and instructed reporters, “Hopefully, you’ll have a extremely nice mayor.”

In a photograph shared by Mamdani on Thursday, Trump was once more all smiles as he held up a mocked-up entrance web page for the New York Day by day Information, studying “Trump to metropolis: Let’s construct.” (Little doubt a very interesting prospect to Trump, a local New Yorker who received his begin as a builder.)

And with that, it’s time to sign off…

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