Donald J. Trump took to his lyin' Truth Social account to weigh in on New York City's pied-à-terre tax — a levy on non-primary homes worth $5 million or more that a judge just temporarily blocked while a homeowners' lawsuit plays out. Trump, never one to let a court ruling speak for itself, decided the moment called for something more.
The tax, he wrote, is "costing New York City and State a fortune," part of a "dangerous political 'experiment'" that will bring about "Financial, and then Social, RUIN" with "100% certainty." Amateur Hour, he called it. Subsequently came the line doing the actual work:
"And then the Radical Left Jihadists charge Congestion Pricing on top of everything else."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, has heard this kind of thing from Trump before. This time the President folded it into a tax complaint, because nothing says "serious fiscal analysis" like grabbing for an Islamophobic slur a pair of sentences after invoking the phrase "Amateur Hour."
Trump wasn't finished making policy sound like a threat. "I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster," he wrote — the President of the United States musing out loud about whether he can use federal power to override a New York State tax law, because a local government he doesn't like passed something he doesn't like.
Whether that "legal right" exists is doing a lot of quiet work in that sentence. Property taxation is about as core a state and local power as exists in American government, and Trump did not cite what federal authority might let him intervene, because there isn't an obvious one.
He closed out with New York's ultimate fate spelled out for the tens of thousands of ReTruthers following along: a "filthy, crime ridden, decrepit place of mockery and scorn," unless, of course, someone stops it. Someone being him.
The irony angle: Trump may not even have to pay this tax himself (his Trump Tower penthouse valuation is murky), so there's a self-interest wrinkle.
According to NYPD data, New York City recorded its fewest shooting incidents, shooting victims, and murders for the first half of any year in recorded history.
If Trump is focused on crime, he should check out the White House. The corruption coming from this President is dizzying.
