Mayor Mamdani on Friday touted the latest fruits of his remarkably friendly relationship with President Trump: an extra 90 days for grocery stores and bodegas to get into compliance with a new set of federal requirements.
The victory for Mamdani comes amid some uncertainty about how the White House will operate under Trump’s new chief of staff, Stephen Miller.
The new set of U.S. Department of Agriculture rules require SNAP-authorized retailers to offer consumers seven varieties of protein, grains, dairy and produce. The regulations were originally slated to go into effect on Nov. 4.
Mamdani said the 90-day extension will give small businesses across the city and country a better chance of maintaining their SNAP authorization, in turn, helping families who are reliant on food benefits.
The mayor said he first went to the Department of Agriculture, writing a letter warning the feds that the new rules threatened to roughly 10,000 small food retailers in New York City. Then he elevated the matter directly to Trump, speaking on the phone with both the president and Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture.
“We were running out of time,” Mamdani said on why he chose to lobby the president directly.
The announcement came almost exactly a year after Mamdani and Trump first forged their unexpectedly amicable relationship at an Oval Office meeting after Mamdani won last year’s general election. The two have stayed in communication since then — though the mayor declined Friday to share how often the two chat — with Mamdani even hosting Trump at Gracie Mansion in September.
“President Trump is always willing to work with those interested in helping their business community,” White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said in a statement.
The mayor thanked the president repeatedly in his remarks on Friday.
“For all of the policy disagreements the two of us have, we do have a shared love of this city,” Mamdani said. “And that does not mean that every request is met. That does not mean that every attempt is successful. What it does mean, however, is that there is always more chance than there was the day before of a working New Yorker’s life, and their needs, being addressed.”