Aug 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump had harsh words on Tuesday for New York, portraying a planned surcharge on luxury second homes in the city he once called home as a “dangerous” leftist experiment that the federal government could challenge.
The so-called “pied-a-terre” tax has already been challenged in state court and a Staten Island judge on Monday temporarily blocked its rollout, according to U.S. media.
City Hall did not immediately comment on Trump’s social media post. On Monday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that the city will vigorously defend its position in court.
Trump and Mamdani have met twice in person, with the first meeting proving unexpectedly friendly despite sharp disagreements on key U.S. policy issues, including immigration and support for Israel’s war in Gaza. But as progressive Democrats have won primaries ahead of midterms that are expected to be tough for Republicans, Trump has increasingly railed against Democrats with language such as his use of “Radical Left Jihadists” to refer to the administration of New York’s first Muslim mayor in Tuesday’s post.
Trump called the pied-a-terre tax a “dangerous political ‘experiment.’”
“I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster,” he said.
The new tax is expected to generate $500 million annually for the city, America’s largest.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Ryan Patrick Jones and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Donna Bryson and Nick Zieminski)
Comments