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Unknown A
President Donald Trump has weighed in on New York City's congestion pricing. Put this element up on the screen saying that it's dead. He's going to kill it. Congestion pricing is dead. Manhattan and all of New York is saved. Long live the King. Posted Donald J. Trump to his Truth Social. This was, curiously, a significant amount of leverage that Trump had over Governor Hochul, who is now under pressure to remove Eric Adams from office.
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Unknown B
We didn't even see that dynamic.
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Unknown A
There was some sense that she didn't want to cross Trump because she didn't want the congestion pricing to be nuked. That leverage is now gone. Trump really leaning into this King Donald routine that he started here. He also the White House posted this. We can put this next element up. A mock up of a fake Time magazine with that's Trump wearing a crown with Long live the King written under it. Congestion pricing is only about a month old at this point. And Governor Hochul came out with a statement urging Trump to back off of this effort, to kill it. We can put this next element up here. This is statement from Governor Kathy Hogle. She says public transit is the lifeblood of New York City and critical to our economic future. As a New Yorker like President Trump knows very well. Since this first in the Nation program took effect last month, congestion has dropped dramatically and commuters are getting to work faster than ever.
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Unknown A
Broadway shows are selling out and foot traffic to local businesses is spiking. School buses are getting kids to class on time and yellow cab Trips increased by 10%. Transit ridership is up. Drivers are having a better experience, and support for this program is growing every day. We are a nation of laws not ruled by a king. The MTA has initiated legal proceedings in the Southern District of New York to preserve this critical program. We'll see you in court, she says. And key to this is that question of. I mean, aside from whether or not we're ruled by a king or not, I guess we'll figure that out over the next couple years. The question of whether or not this is popular. I can put this next element up on the screen. A poll about six in 10 saying they want New York City congestion pricing to continue.
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Unknown A
If you dive deeper into the poll, the support is quite strong for this new program. Stronger than it was, I would say, when it was launched.
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Unknown B
Yes. That was my. That was what I found as well.
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Unknown A
Yeah. And the advocates of it argued that it is one of those government programs that doesn't feel right out of the gate. You're like, I gotta pay for something. I didn't have to pay for before. Which, by the way, streets are the only thing that we think should be free. Like, if you ever suggest that riding the bus should be free or riding the subway should be free, which I'd be cool with.
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Unknown B
Yeah.
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Unknown A
You sound like a radical commie socialist. And they're like, what, are you, crazy? But why? The public built the bus system, the public built the subway, and the public built the roads. It's the roads that people feel like they have this right to. So when it comes to the congestion prices I put up on my feed last night, I was curious for my own followers how they were liking it. And I think universally, everyone who responded, at least to me, obviously this is not a scientific poll, but Twitter is filled with cranky, conservative people who don't. And they are not shy about sharing their opinions with me. You can just scroll through my feed and see. Everyone is like, the streets are. The commutes are less. I'm shaving a half an hour to an hour off my commute. You can walk around the city. Better public transportation.
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Unknown A
Ridership is up, and money is flowing in to the city that is supposed to be earmarked to upgrade the subways and the buses. As somebody pointed out, the buses from New Jersey are making it through the tunnels much more smoothly, which then makes being able to take the bus a much more feasible thing. Before, like, I'm not gonna take the bus and sit for 30 minutes inside this tunnel.
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Unknown B
Yeah.
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Unknown A
But now if it's gonna move through, and if the bus. If you're taking the bus from Harlem all the way down and it's moving much quicker, and all of a sudden a bus trip, which previously was not even something that you would consider doing, because who wants to sit on a bus for an hour and a half? Now all of a sudden, it's reasonable. And now your Uber and your taxi rides are much, much quicker too. So everyone seems happy, obviously, except for, you know, people who are getting hit with the.
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Unknown B
With the toll.
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Unknown A
But a lot of the people who are paying the toll are like, it's taking me an hour less, and I'm. And time is valuable and I will spend that.
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Unknown B
That's a great point, too. Yeah. I actually have taken a bunch of those express buses from New Jersey into the city. And if you haven't lived there or done that, like, you may not know that they come. Like, if you are in a certain area, they come, like, every 10 minutes. It's actually very practical. It's not a hardship to walk out one block. Wait for this bus for five minutes, and if you miss it, get the next one ten minutes later and, you know, zoom into the city and go to town.
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Unknown A
Manhattan. Working class people are commuting into Manhattan. Well, working class people can commute to somewhere else and then take public. Public transit.
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Unknown B
Transit in. Yeah. You know, I saw. I talked to some friends who live in the city who were very upset about this because they feel like for once there was something that was done that immediately actually improved their lives.
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Unknown A
Right. Imagine that.
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Unknown B
Made life easier. I mean, you know, I lived in Manhattan for a number of years, and the nightmare of trying to get from one side to the other or get downtown or up to and not know. And that's the thing, too, is, like, not knowing. Is this going to be a day where it's going to take 30 minutes? Is it going to be a day where it takes an hour? And ultimately, I just, like, bail out of bailout and walk the last mile or whatever, you know, and to have that level of predictability and just ease of movement, it really is like a freeing, a sense of freedom that people had gained with this congestion pricing because it had made such an improvement. And then to have Trump just come in out of spite effectively and totally reverse it. Yeah, I think that this was a material improvement for people who live in New York City.
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Unknown B
The other piece here with the long live the king part is I feel a little bit, like, gaslit in the same way with Elon Musk's Heil Hitler thing. We're supposed to pretend that you didn't just do the thing that we saw you do. Don't get mad about us calling you a dictator when you're calling yourself a king and a dictator and sharing this fake Time magazine of you as a king on, you know, from the official White House Twitter account. Also, this wasn't some rando. But, you know, I was saying to you earlier, I also think it is a little bit of him trying to reclaim his power, because it is true that Elon, of the two of them, seems like the much more powerful entity. Now, Trump is mostly out playing golf. The number of days he's played golf already in this administration is quite extraordinary.
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Unknown B
He wants to do the pieces he wants to do. And a lot of it does feel like it's been sort of like him handed over and outsourced to Elon. So I think he also wanted to reassert himself a little bit here. The Eric Adams dynamic is interesting to me. And by the way, you know that this is really popular because Kathy Hochul is actually taking a stand in favor of it. And this is the most like, weak kneed, pathetic Democratic leader you can imagine to the suburbs. Yeah, exactly. And so the fact that she is stridently and in multiple posts aggressively defending congestion pricing tells you just how popular it is with New Yorkers, not just like some tiny sliver of lefties in Brooklyn or whatever. And I do think that it probably makes her more likely to exercise the power she does have to remove Eric Adams from office.
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Unknown B
But she's been meeting with a variety of leaders, getting their opinions on that. Apparently there's some concern. I don't know what his numbers are at this point. They can't be good. There's this knee jerk assumption that he still has strong support among black voters in the city and in the state. And I just. Maybe, but I haven't seen the polling to justify that. I would think that they would be disgusted with the, you know, corruption and self dealing and cozying up to Trump as much as or more than anybody else.
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Unknown A
Yesterday you had a significant number of black elected officials coming out and supporting Eric Adams as black elected officials. Like they were saying, as a black elected official, we oppose Kathy Hochul removing Eric Adams. So there is, at least on the elected level, that kind of pushback being organized.
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Unknown B
Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they speak really for anybody but themselves. And also there are other black elected officials that you could have in that office who are interested in the seat as well.
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Unknown A
So it would be Jumani Williams who would become mayor, right?
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Unknown B
Yeah, that's right.
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Unknown A
Which would be kind of amazing because he's kind of a radical, lefty working families party guy.
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Unknown B
Yeah. It would be a pretty dramatic ideological shift from.
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Unknown A
But also a black man.
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Unknown B
Yes. From Trump de facto running New York City, as he apparently does now, to having a working families party.
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Unknown A
And Trump should go spend some time in New York. He hasn't been there the last month, but traffic in front of the Trump Tower, it's just constant fumes and like, you can't move. He should go check it out. Maybe he'll like it. I mean, if it's all at the whim of the king, then the king needs to get in his chariot and.
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Unknown B
Go to New York City, increasing the value of his properties within Manhattan.
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Unknown A
It absolutely would.
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Unknown B
That's the appeal to make there.
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Unknown A
Yeah.
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Unknown B
All right, let's go ahead and get to our guest who's been directly impacted by some of the federal freezes and hear his story.
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Unknown A
Hey, if you like that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people.
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Unknown B
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Unknown A
That's right, get the full show. Help support the future of independent media at breakingpoints. Com.