President Donald Trump is enraged at New York City's election of left-wing progressive Zohran Mamdani in the mayoral race — and is already considering revenge plots that could defund the federal component of critical city services, Axios reported on Thursday.
The president has spent months attacking Mamdani, who favors policies like free bus service, rent freezes, and publicly-owned grocery stores in lower-income areas, as a "Communist," and threatening various acts of retribution.
According to the report, there are a number of federal contributions Trump could try to revoke or reduce.
"New York City is supposed to receive $7.4 billion in federal funds in fiscal 2026, according to an analysis by the New York State Comptroller's Office. That accounts for 6.4% of the city's budget," said the report. In particular, the city's education department gets over $2 billion in federal money, and the Department of Social Services gets $1.5 billion.
In terms of the percentage of federal money going to city departments, the report continued, "The Administration for Children's Services ... gets 39% of its money from Washington," while "The Department of Housing Preservation & Development — the agency tasked with creating and preserving affordable housing in a city where hundreds of thousands struggle with housing costs — gets 50% of its budget from the feds."
That could particularly stymie Mamdani's efforts to build new housing, a massive part of his platform, although it also comes at a moment when New Yorkers overwhelmingly voted to streamline the permitting process for private housing development.
Trump has already made his willingness to punish jurisdictions that oppose him clearly known, as he has deployed federal forces, including a surge of immigration agents, to cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, leading to a wave of protests.
