NYC NOW - NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani Meets With President Trump, And the Artist Behind His Famous Font

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Mayor elect Zohran Mamdani met with President Trump at the White House, where both described common ground on affordability and public safety. Meanwhile, New Jersey has set dates for the special election to fill governor elect Mikie Sherrill’s vacant House seat. Also, Penn Station’s future is back in the spotlight as federal planners court private sector support. Plus, we hear from the artist behind Mamdani’s signature campaign font.

Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani meets with President Trump. New Jersey holds a special election for Governor-elect Mikey Sherrill's empty congressional seat. Plans for redesigning Penn Station continue. And the artist behind Mamdani's famous font. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Elizabeth Shui, filling in for Jenae Pierre. President Trump says he has more in common with New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani. than he thought, like a desire to lower crime, create more housing, and bring down rents.

The two met for the first time at the White House Friday afternoon. The pair had insulted each other throughout the campaign season. Mamdani says, despite their different worldviews, he looks forward to working with the president. 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.

President Trump says he believes Mumdani can do a lot of good for the city. I met with a man who's a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again. And I can say again because New York was great. The two also talked about their shared love of New York City. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has announced the dates for a special election to fill the congressional seat vacated by Governor-elect Mikey Sherman. The primary to fill her seat will be February 5th, and the general election will be two months later on April 16th.

The House District includes mostly suburban areas of Morris, Essex, and Passaic counties. One Republican and at least a dozen Democrats have thrown their hats in the ring so far, with possibly more in the coming weeks. There will be six days of in-person early voting for the primary and nine days for the general election. New York City's acting health commissioner is pushing back against the Trump administration's claims linking autism to vaccines. Dr. Michelle Morris calls the claims reckless in a statement posted on social media and says undermining vaccines puts everyone's health at risk. She says the federal centers for disease control and prevention is no longer a trustworthy source of information. The CDC's website was updated this week to say that a connection between

autism and vaccines can't be ruled out, even though the theory has been debunked by research. The question of what to do with Penn Station is back in the spotlight. Former MTA chief Andy Biford, aka Train Daddy, who's been tasked with the federal government to lead the reconstruction of the station, was in town this week to talk about next steps. Not only is it sort of the ugly duckling in the middle of the corridor, but it's also, it impedes us because it's so congested. In the latest edition of On the Way, WNYC's transportation segment, editor Clayton Goosa explains the purpose of the meeting.

He's addressing this room full of big wigs right next to Penn Station, this event hosted by a group called the Association for a Better New York. Clayton says the plan is still very vague. but the meeting served as a reach-out to the private sector, as Bifred looks for a concrete way forward. It's still really unclear what that's going to look like, but this was him really getting the city's power brokers in line and on his side as he moves this vision forward.

WNYC's transportation reporter Stephen Nesson says that while there's a lot of possibilities for Penn Station, it's what's above the station that's less flexible. It's there. You're not going to change it dramatically unless you address the elephant on top of the station, Madison Square Garden. Fam track moves it. That does open up a lot of different possibilities

than what folks have considered before. Madison Square Gardens' permit to operate above Penn Station expires in 2028. Up next, we hear from the artist who designed Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani's famous font. That's after the break. As inauguration day approaches, the aesthetics of the mayor-elect's campaign are still fresh in people's minds. Those golden capital letters that spell out Zoran outlined with a bright red shadow are part of the mayor's political branding.

WNYC's Elizabeth Kim reports on how the mayor-elect developed his winning font. When Zoran Mamdani began putting together his mayoral campaign last year, he knew it would be focused on affordability. He also knew who he wanted to help him communicate his identity and agenda. The first thing I was thinking was that I wanted to work with Anish. Anish Bupathy is a graphic designer who used to live in Astoria. When I call him, he tells me Mamdani was, quote, a dream client. He's a very talented visual communicator, and he has a very good instinct for it. The two met in 2020.

Like Mamdani, Bupathi was also a member of the district. Democratic Socialists of America. When Mamdani decided to run for State Assembly, Bupathi took a month off to volunteer as a designer. What I always appreciated about him was his inventiveness, his creativity, and the way in which he was looking at the work that we were doing as an opportunity to expand the palette of political design. Mamdani is surrounded by visual artists.

His mom is Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nyer. His wife, Ramadouaji, is an illustrator whose work has been featured in Vogue, New York Magazine, and The New Yorker. I'm standing in front of a laundromat in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, staring at one of Mamdani's more popular posters. I'm here to meet graphic designer Matthew Hinder's Anderson. He created the digital font for the campaign based on Bupathi's original logo. How you doing today? Good. Thanks so much for doing this. The campaign poster shows the mayor-elect in a white tunic with his arms crossed.

The backdrop is triangles of yellow and blue. Across the top reads, Democrat for mayor, Zoran, for a New York you can afford. What makes this more visually interesting as opposed to like that? I point to two other political posters. The color jumps out. Absolutely. I think that speaks a lot to it, that a lot of these other branding are so subdued and professional that they sort of disappear, that this catches your eye immediately, and it's so unique, so recognizable, and communicates, like, a freshness that the other ones don't have.

All of the posters are based on a template of graphics designed by Bupathi. Mamdani says the two spent weeks on Zoom calls coming up with a design palette that would evoke New York City. We wanted more to be speaking to taxi cabs and bodegas and hot dog stands and boardwalks. They chose three primary colors, red, blue, and what Bupathy calls, taxicab yellow. I think the energy of those kind of colors just seemed to fit well with him and they looked good next to him. To evoke the look of old storefront signs, Bupathy hand-painted the original logo. In one widely used version, he combined the taxicab yellow with a dramatic red drop shadow. The saturated colors and drop shadow are reminiscent of Bollywood posters.

Bupathi tells me Mamdani had sent him photos of two Bollywood posters. It was just like, let's push the envelope. Here's some kind of font styles that are a bit more expressive, really. Mamdani's wife also pitched in. It was her feedback, for example, that led to the bottom right of the R having a flourish as opposed to being a duplicative style letter that you could find elsewhere in the logo. Mamdani is still thinking about how to communicate his agenda in unique ways. Last week, his transition team announced his two top administration officials on social media in the style of baseball cards. If you've been wondering if it's too early to put up holiday lights, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden says it's not.

The garden's fifth annual lightscape starts Friday evening, with more than a million lights along the mile-long trail. You can walk through the illuminated trail after dark and see colorful tree displays, installations by local artists, and curated holiday music. Lightscape will run through January 4th. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from W&M. I'm Elizabeth Shui. Have a great weekend. We'll be back Monday.