Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for mayor of New York, accused President Trump on Friday of trying to harm the city’s economy with his administration’s decision this week to freeze $18 billion in federal funding for two of the country’s largest infrastructure initiatives.
“It shows how little he thinks of the people from the city that he likes to remind us he is from,” said Mr. Mamdani, standing above a construction site in Manhattan for one of the projects, a $16 billion rail tunnel being built under the Hudson River. “These are the actions of one who is cruel to this city.”
Mr. Mamdani said that the consequences could be “immensely serious” if the Trump administration did not soon restore the already approved money for that project, known as Gateway, and for the other, the expansion of the Second Avenue subway line.
With about a month until Election Day, Mr. Mamdani argued that he and not his chief rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, was the strongest candidate to stand up to the Trump administration following a series of cuts, as well as threats of cuts, to federal funds in New York.
Mr. Cuomo on Thursday denounced the Trump administration’s funding freeze, as well as its cut of $187 million in counterterrorism funds for the state that was later restored.
“It’s reckless, and it’s irresponsible,” he said, noting that Mr. Trump’s tactics showed he could still interfere with the city without sending in the National Guard, as he has elsewhere.
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The post Mamdani Condemns Trump’s $18 Billion Funding Freeze for New York-Area Projects appeared first on New York Times.
