President Trump said Thursday he was "surprised" New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized his Saturday raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Mamdani, who took office two days before the raid, publicly criticized Trump and even briefly phoned the president to privately object to the ouster of the fellow socialist, who is now facing federal drug charges.

"You know, I met him, he came to the Oval Office, and we've had some nice conversations and very good. And then he hit me a little bit on the tremendous victory — and you would say it was a tremendous victory — on Venezuela," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview.

"And I said, 'Gee, I thought he would have at least waited a month.' I was surprised that he hit me on that, but he did. So what are you going to do? I expected it. I just thought it would be maybe three or four weeks instead of immediately, because I do get along with him."

Trump added: "He's got a great personality, he's a nice guy. His policies are not good, but maybe he changes. You know, that's what I would view, because I want to do everything I can to help New York... I hope New York will thrive. But typically, those policies... in history, those policies have never work."

READ MORE

President Trump on Thursday reiterated his support for Iranian protesters as the civilian unrest continues.

"I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots… we’re going to hit them very hard,” Trump said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.

Trump had warned last month that the regime would face consequences if the government shot protesters.

When Hewitt mentioned that dozens have already been killed in the protests, Trump said some were due due to stampedes and not necessarily caused by law enforcement.

“I’m not sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that, but … they’ve been told very strongly — even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now — that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” Trump says.

From Tehran to provincial cities, crowds of defiant Iranians are pouring into public squares, chanting for freedom and an end to the iron-fisted rule that’s crushed dissent for decades.

Videos shared online show waves of protesters flooding major roads and shouting slogans that strike at the heart of the Islamic Republic. A new video circulating Thursday afternoon showed crowds cheering as a building went up in flames.

The renewed unrest marks one of the biggest surges of anti-regime demonstrations in years, as everyday Iranians — students, workers and women leading the charge — risk arrest, beatings and worse to demand democratic reforms.

The regime, true to form, has responded with force. Authorities have ramped up security deployments, throttled internet access and warned demonstrators of “severe consequences” for taking part in what officials label as foreign-backed unrest.

But the threats don’t appear to be working.

Anger has been simmering over a brutal mix of economic collapse, corruption, political repression and the lack of basic freedoms — especially for women and young people who say they have nothing left to lose. Each new crackdown seems only to fuel fresh outrage.

READ MORE

President Donald Trump is considering another addition to his White House renovation plan, this time to the West Wing, where the Oval Office is located.

The president is weighing adding another level to the one-story building, building it over the area where the White House press room is located.

Doing so would give symmetry in heights with the White House itself and the still-being-built ballroom, an official said.

Architect Shalom Baranes revealed the plan at Thursday’s meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission.

"We're considering the idea of a modest one story addition to the West Wing,” he said.

Baranes said the 89,000 square foot ballroom will be the same height as the two-story White House residence.

Adding another story to the West Wing would make the three parts of the White House complex equal.

“The reason to think about that is so that we would reinstate the symmetry around the central pavilion of the White House. We haven't looked at it. We have not looked at that at all, yet. We hope to do so in the future,” he said.

READ MORE

President Trump insisted in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times that the US needs to annex Greenland rather than leave it to the control of NATO ally Denmark.

"Ownership is very important," Trump told the outlet during the Wednesday sitdown.

"That’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do with, you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document."

When asked if he would prefer to take over the world's largest island or leave the Atlantic alliance intact, Trump declined to say, but acknowledged: "It may be a choice."

Vice President JD Vance jokingly claimed CNN installed a malfunctioning camera as his appearance in the press briefing room was interrupted Thursday by a noisy shutter above his head.

"What's that going on there? Is that normal?" the VP said. "CNN installed this broken camera just to throw me off my game. But it's not going to work."

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that European leaders should take President Trump's interest in Greenland "seriously" — as Denmark insists the world's largest island is not for sale.

"My advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously," Vance said at a White House briefing.

"What has he said about Greenland? Set to the side the crazy overreactions that I've seen from the press and certain people in Europe. What has the president said?" the VP asked.

"Number one, Greenland is really important, not just to America's missile defense, but to the world's missile defense. Number two, we know that there are hostile adversaries that have shown a lot of interest in that particular territory, that particular slice of the world."

Vance added: "What we're asking our European friends to do is take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they're not, the United States is going to have to do something about it. What that is? I'll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic."

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday he is "very involved" in Venezuela policy and chairs meetings "every other day" among senior officials — pushing back on speculation he was cut out from info about the Saturday US raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"Every other day I'm chairing the meeting that we do on this among White House principals to talk about next steps to try to ensure that Venezuela is stable, and as the president has directed us to do, to ensure that the new Venezuela government actually listens to the United States and does what the United States needs it to do under our country's best interest," Vance said at a White House briefing.

"I'm going to be as involved as the president wants me to be. So far that's been very involved."

Vance, who was not present at Mar-a-Lago with other senior figures during the attack, denied media speculation that he and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were uninvolved due to their prior anti-interventionist rhetoric.

"I've heard a couple of things that I was kept out of the planning for the Venezuela operation.That's false. And another that Tulsi was kept out of the planning for Venezuela operations. That's completely false," Vance said.

"Look, we're all part of the same team. And one of the things that is really amazing about that operation is that we've kept it very tight to the senior cabinet-level officials and related officials in our government, and we kept this operation secret for a very long time. We're very proud of that. I think it suggests the team works very well together."

Vance also responded to the Senate vote to advance legislation restraining President Trump's future actions in Venezuela, calling the War Powers Resolution of 1973 a "fake and unconstitutional law" and saying the vote is "not going to change anything about how we conduct foreign policy."

Vice President Vance, asked if he had any doubt that victim Renee Nicole Good deliberately tried to ram the ICE agent who shot and killed her yesterday:

"Look, I don’t know what is in a person’s heart or in a person’s head. And obviously, we’re not going to get the chance to ask this woman what was going on.

"What I am certain of is that she violated the law. What I am certain of is that that officer had every reason to think that he was under very serious threat for injury, or in fact, his life. What I’m certain of [is] that she accelerated in a way where she ran into the guy.

"I don’t know what was in her heart and what was in her head, but I know that she violated the law, and I know that officer was acting in self-defense.

"That raises an interesting point, though. Look, if people want to say that we should have a legitimate debate about, you know, what was she really doing, right? Was she panicking when she drove into this officer? Or was she actually trying to ram him? That’s a — that’s a reasonable conversation.

"What’s not reasonable is for so many of you to plaster all over the media that this was an innocent woman and that the ICE agent committed murder, which is what many of you have said explicitly, and some of you have said implicitly. That’s what I have an objection to. The idea that this was not justified is absurd and I think everybody knows it in their heart."

In response to a question from Fox News Channel's Peter Doocy about who he thinks is "behind this broader left-wing network," Vice President JD Vance responds:

"Here’s the way that I put it: When somebody throws a brick at an ICE agent or somebody tries to run over an ICE agent, who paid for the brick and who told protesters to show up and engage in violent activity against our law enforcement officers?

"You see, just with this most recent terrible incident in Minneapolis, you see friends of this woman or other people who are eyewitnesses saying, basically, that she was there to engage in obstruction of a legitimate law enforcement operation.

"How did she get there? How did she learn about this? There’s an entire network -- and frankly, some of the media are participating in it -- that is trying to incite violence against our law enforcement officers.

"It’s ridiculous. It’s preposterous, and part of our investigatory work is getting to the bottom of it, who’s funding it, who’s supporting it, who’s cheerleading it. And of course, if there’s illegal activity related to that, we’re going to get to the bottom of that and prosecute it where we can."

More from Vice President JD Vance, when asked for a response to recent anti-ICE and anti-administration comments from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

"Well, that's very tough rhetoric from a guy who just quit because his fraudulent activities have been uncovered.

"Look, Tim Walz is a joke. His entire administration has been a joke. The idea that he's some sort of freedom fighter, he's not. He's a guy who has enabled fraud and maybe, in fact, has participated in fraud. That's what this new assistant attorney general position is going to find out.

"I don't care what Tim Walz says. I care about getting to the bottom of this fraud for the American people. And I care about enforcing the nation's immigration laws. That's what we're going to stay focused on."

More from Vice President JD Vance on Renee Nicole Good, the victim of yesterday's shooting:

"That woman is part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault, and to make it impossible for our officers to do their job.

"If the media wants to tell the truth, they ought to tell the truth that a group of left-wing radicals have been working tirelessly, sometimes using domestic terror techniques, to make it impossible for the president of the United States to do what the American people elected him to do, which is enforce our immigration laws.

"The president stands with ICE. I stand with ICE. We stand with all of the law enforcement officers. And part of that is recognizing, you people in the media -- not everybody in this room, but many people in this room -- have been lying about this attack.

"She was trying to ram this guy with her car. He shot back. He defended himself. He has already been seriously wounded in operations before and everybody who’s been repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Every single one of you.”

Vice President JD Vance has been speaking at length about yesterday's fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. Some quotes below:

"This was an attack on federal law enforcement. It was an attack on law and order. It was an attack on the American people. The way that the media, by and large, has reported the story has been an absolute disgrace and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day."

The veep specifically attacked CNN for publishing a headline: "Outrage after ICE officer kills US citizen in Minneapolis."

"What that headline leaves out," Vance said, "is the fact that that very ICE officer nearly had his life ended [when he was dragged] by a car six months ago, 33 stitches in his leg. So, you think he is a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?

"What that headline leaves out is that that woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation in the United States of America."