Luke Garrett

The chummy Oval Office meeting shocked political onlookers, but Mamdani tells NBC News he still believes Trump is a fascist.

That's something that I've said in the past, I say it today.

On the economy and affordability, Mamdani says he and Trump found common ground.

Trump's top economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, tells CNN the president no longer wants to act on his threat to curb federal funding from New York City.

Well, it feels like he doesn't mean it now.

And I guess we'll have to wait and see what Mamdani does.

Hassett says the White House was reassured by Mamdani's choice to retain the current police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington.

Yeah, that's right.

And we need to go back a few days to better understand this move and this moment.

Last week, Representatives Thomas Massey of Kentucky, a Republican, and Ro Khanna of California, a Democrat, gathered 218 signatures.

That's enough to

force a vote on the release of the DOJ documents regarding the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

And a source familiar but not authorized to share the House schedule publicly confirmed that Speaker Johnson would bring this vote up on Tuesday.

This teed up a really difficult vote for Republicans who had to decide whether to vote with Trump and against the bill or vote to release the Epstein files.

And this was also tough for Trump himself, who faced dozens of potential defectors.

All right, so if the vote is on Tuesday, why did Trump make this Sunday late-night announcement?

Well, in a social media post last night, Trump said he wanted the GOP to move on from what he called the Democratic hoax and distraction.

And notably, on the Sunday morning news shows, two House Republicans publicly and loudly rebuked Trump over the Epstein files.

On ABC News, Massey took a warning shot against Trump's legacy and any GOP member willing to vote against his bill.