Trump and New Orleans mayor give conflicting accounts of their meeting

The big picture: Trump, during an Oval Office briefing Friday, said Moreno thanked him for sending the National Guard to New Orleans.

• "She was great," Trump said. "She thanked me so much. She said crime is down more than 50% in just a few weeks, and you couldn't even walk down the street in New Orleans it's so bad."
• "And now they let us in there, and she is thanking me so much, so profusely," Trump said.

The other side: That's not exactly Moreno's recollection of the conversation, based on how she described it on Instagram.

• "I really thought it was important for him to understand ... that we have been making strides in public safety for quite some time," she said. "In fact, our efforts really over the past year and a half have led to a 50-year low in the homicide rate here in the city of New Orleans."
• She said she also talked with him about the "real need that we have for infrastructure investment."
• "I thought it was very important for the president to hear directly from me what the city of new Orleans actually needs from the federal government," she said, adding that it was "a good conversation."

Zoom in: The two talked for about 20 minutes Thursday at the Kennedy Center with Gayle Benson, Gov. Jeff Landry and his wife Sharon Landry, Blake Paterson wrote for The Times-Picayune.

• "Even though I may not be politically aligned with someone, if they are in a position of power and have the ability to help the city of New Orleans, then I want to make sure that our needs are being told to these particular individuals so that we can figure out if there is a path to be able to work together," she says in the video.

Context: Last year, Landry, a Republican and staunch Trump supporter, requested federal deployment of the National Guard in New Orleans.

• Moreno, who at the time was a council member campaigning for mayor, called the move an "attack on certain cities" and a "misuse of public funds," saying she would "fight to prevent any federal takeover of New Orleans."

• The National Guard arrived at the end of December, a few weeks after Border Patrol started an immigration enforcement effort in the metro.
• Moreno has been vocal about her opposition to the Border Patrol's tactics, too.

State of play: The Washington trip appears to be Moreno's first official out-of-state event since her inauguration.

• She was there Wednesday through Friday and described it as a "jam-packed 48 hours," in a social media post.
• She attended Washington Mardi Gras events and spoke on a panel at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, according to the group's website.
• She also was a speaker at a Latino Leaders event and had "productive" meetings with several congressional leaders, she said.

The intrigue: Moreno was critical of her predecessor's trips and issued a travel ban on her first day in office.

• The order restricted public money from being used for nonessential travel.
• Moreno said she paid for the trip with campaign and personal funds.
• "No city funds were utilized on this trip," she said in a video.

Go deeper: Helena's Moreno's two-day Washington sprint via The Times-Picayune