Old whine, new bottle.
The world is on fire again with speculation that President Trump will end congestion pricing after he told Australia's worst export on Sunday that he will "kill it off" — either by revoking the federal approval of the program or by seizing control over billions of federal dollars slated for New York.
But like with so many things with the former New Yorker-turned-Floridian-turned-felon, it all boils down to two things: What does Donald Trump want and what will others give him in exchange?
He's already gotten plenty from his threats — empty and illegal — to end congestion pricing: Gov. Hochul is reportedly trying to "make a deal" with President Trump, but it seems like she's the only one giving. As Trump decides the fate of congestion pricing, he let it be known that he opposed a state Democratic plan to keep open a soon-to-be-vacant safe GOP House seat in upstate New York to reduce the Republican majority in the Congress until the next election. Lo and behold, Hochul blinked and rejected the scheme, as the Post and the Times reported.
Meanwhile, Mayor Adams is so eager to please the president that he certainly hasn't begged him to save the toll. In fact, the mayor is in full MAGA mode, telling his senior staffers on Monday of the new "marching orders under the new administration: don’t criticize President Trump [and] don’t interfere with immigration enforcement," The City and other outlets reported. Hours later, the President moved to dismiss the corruption charges against the mayor, making the mayor, as Hell Gate put it, President Trump's "puppet" in New York.
And the governor and the mayor are falling in line behind Trump's immigration (i.e. deportation) plan.
Have the top Democrats in New York done enough to appease Trump? Probably not. So it comes to this: How far is he willing to go?
As Streetsblog has reported multiple times, it's just not legal for the U.S. Department of Transportation to change its mind and revoke the approval it gave to set up the first-in-the-nation cordon toll — even if the boss changed from Biden to Trump.
But Trump still has several — still illegal — cards to play. When he talked to the Post's Miranda Devine about his options, he hinted that he could kill congestion pricing by choking off the state's funding pipeline.
“If I decide to do it, I will be able to kill it off in Washington through the Department of Transportation," he said. "It’s a lot of power.”
That "power" (in Trump's mind) may consist of interfering with grants to New York that have already been appropriated by Congress that he intends to impound (i.e. steal). Trump doesn't think he has to spend money the way Congress has told him to — and members of his administration (looking at you, JD Vance) are openly daring the courts to stop them. The MTA also gets billions in reimbursements every year, the agency said — and it's likely Trump could see that money as negotiable (though it is not).
And then there are Trump's allies who simply hate congestion pricing and won't be persuaded by Mayor Adams or Gov. Hochul consenting in advance. Several are already discussing slipping language into Congressional spending legislation that denies federal funds to any city that does congestion pricing. A move like that would have to clear the House and the Senate though, and everyone would like to believe that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is there to prevent things like that from happening (especially now that Mitch McConnell is no longer Darth Sidious to his Anakin Skywalker).
One other thing: Trump didn't kill congestion pricing in his first day blizzard of executive orders, and he hasn't done so since. It's probably not because he feels restrained by the courts. More likely, he enjoys having two neutered leaders in New York, or even more likely, he thinks it's better for Rep. Mike Lawler to have a shillelagh with which to club Hochul when he runs for governor next year because both men think the toll will be politically toxic enough to make for a winning campaign issue.
And for now, the governor is keeping her powder dry, sending a spokesperson out into the world to tell people that she's "happy to talk with anyone, anytime about how this program is benefiting New Yorkers and the entire region."
And it is befitting the region, doing what it's supposed to do in reducing auto traffic, helping foot traffic and even boosting sales on the Great White Way. So maybe Trump will simply not act ... and then take credit.
If you're looking for something to do you can call the governor and thank her for so far standing up for the toll. You can also call Sen. Schumer and his junior colleague Kirsten Gillibrand and tell them that they need to make sure to stop any effort to kill congestion pricing under the cover of an omnibus spending bill.
These politicians need to be as afraid of you as they are of Donald Trump.
