Keep up with the latest in New York City politics and what’s happening in Albany on Tuesday, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani dodged questions about whether the Iranian people are better off without Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was among a number of top Tehran leaders killed by American and Israeli airstrikes.
President Trump randomly posted Tuesday evening a previously unseen photos from Mayor Zohran Mamdani's latest trip to the White House — praising the 34-year-old democratic socialist.
"Zohran has come a long way embracing, of course, the Declaration of Independence while at The Oval Office — Big progress! President DJT," he wrote on Truth Social with a photo of Hizzoner standing along next to the framed historical document.
Trump is randomly posting on social media about his bizarre bestie, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani
The photo appears to be from his last visit, given the outfit
He wore a red tie last week in Oval (2nd photo) while a blue tie during the first meeting (3rd photo) pic.twitter.com/wEtWGz79f9
The 6 p.m. post praise came just days after Mamdani tried to sneak down to DC to meet with the president in the Oval Office, before The Post broke news of the unannounced trip.
Mamdani tried to pitch the commander-in-chief on a massive housing project above the Sunnyside Yards in Queens.
The 12,000 housing unit project had been previously fizzled out under Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015 due to its complicated nature.
Taxpayers will shell out more than $36,000 per tot for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s free 2-K pilot program – roughly $13,000 more than the average cost of private child care, city officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Free child care was a campaign promise of Mamdani. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post
Gov. Kathy Hochul allocated $73 million in state funding for the 2,000-seat pilot launching in the fall — or about $36,500 per tot — as the pair move toward fulfilling Mamdani’s promise of universal child care for all city kids from 6 weeks to 5 years old.
The two Democrats joined forces in Harlem Tuesday to announce the five school districts, mostly lower income and diverse neighborhoods, that will get the first shot at signing their little ones up for the freebie, previously dubbed “2-Care.”
Thousands of desperately needed public housing apartments are sitting empty across New York City — even as scores of families wait years for a place to live, a new investigation found.
The number of vacant New York City Housing Authority units more than doubled in recent years, from about 2,840 in 2022 to roughly 6,740 by 2025, according to a report on the probe released Tuesday by the city Department of Investigation.
NYCHA apartments sit vacant for one year on average in between tenants. Stephen Yang for NY Post
On average, vacancies stretched to up to a year — up from four months in 2021 — a staggering slowdown for an agency facing a massive housing crunch, with 165,000 hopeful families stuck on NYCHA’s waiting list, the DOI said.
The Trump administration’s effort to kill New York’s congestion pricing scheme is “unlawful,” a Manhattan federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Judge Lewis Liman found that US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s move to unilaterally scrap the first-in-the-nation tolls, via a series of letters sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2025, wasn’t legal under the agreement signed by the state and federal government years earlier.
Judge Lewis J. Liman wrote that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s (above) effort to unilaterally end congestion pricing in a letter sent over a year ago was not permitted. AP
“The Secretary’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law,” the ruling states. “Plaintiffs are thereby relieved of the obligation to cease tolling operations.”
Liman in May issued a temporary restraining order to keep the toll cameras on, handing Hochul, the MTA and transportation advocates a win after they filed suit to stop the feds from ending the program.
But the new ruling appears to put an end to Duffy’s attempt to kill the tolling agreement using letters — including one February 2025 missive declaring congestion pricing “dead” — and threats to withhold federal funding.
The New York City Housing Authority has agreed to a settlement with the federal government after failing to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing tenants as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Department of Justice began investigating after receiving complaints from NYCHA tenants, including from some hearing-impaired public housing residents who said they were forced to enlist children as interpreters.
The deal announced Tuesday intends to bring NYCHA into compliance with the landmark civil rights law that bans discrimination based on disability.
Under the agreement, NYCHA must provide auxiliary aids and services -- such as sign language interpreters, captioned telephones, visual doorbells and other alert devices -- to public housing residents who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The settlement also requires NYCHA to update its policies and training materials and to designate coordinators to oversee compliance.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday that it was "difficult to hear" being called a "cockroach" and "jihadist" by a prominent NYC radio host earlier this week.
Mamdani, speaking to reporters at a press conference rolling out locations for the state's 2k pilot, tried to brush off the comments, saying they were hurtful but had more important work ahead of him.
"To be called a jihadist mayor, to be called a cockroach," Hizzoner said, following a deep sigh. "This language is both painfully familiar to me as a Muslim New Yorker, but also someone who was born in East Africa and it is difficult to hear."
“I have far more urgent work in front of me than indulging the provocations of a man who trades in outrage and frankly fears the city that we are looking to build," he added.
The reaction was in response to Sid Rosenberg's comment on WABC radio, where he attacked the mayor, saying "Bottom line is he’s an America-hating, Jew hating, Radical Islam cockroach running our once beautiful city."
Rosenberg shot back at the mayor, telling him to "save his crocodile tear bulls--t."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani largely sidestepped a question Tuesday about whether the Iranian people are better off without the Ayatollah, who was among a number of top Tehran leaders killed by American and Israeli airstrikes.
“It is a brutal government,” he told reporters, before pivoting to his argument against US intervention in the Middle East.
“I am old enough to remember the devastating consequences of our country pursuing a war with the intent of regime change in that same region not that many years ago,” the 34-year-old mayor said at an unrelated press conference.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has condemned the US-Israel joint military action in Iran. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post
Mamdani argued that he’s previously said Iran is repressive against its own people, including the killing anti-government protesters during this year’s massive demonstrations.
Hizzoner had called the US and Israeli airstrikes “an illegal war of aggression” as he condemned the military action.
Mamdani said his message to Jewish and Iranians New Yorkers is that his first priority is to keep them safe.
“What we have done is taken the decision to increase agency coordination as well as increasing patrols of sensitive locations across the city out of an abundance of caution,” Mamdani said.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman called Gov. Kathy Hochul "un-American" Tuesday for making contradictory statements about the US strikes against Iran.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman called Gov. Kathy Hochul "un-American" Tuesday for making contradictory statements about the US strikes against Iran. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post
Hochul, while blasting the Iranian regime as a global threat, said Sunday, "It’s deeply disturbing that we entered a war without an exit strategy, and sadly there’s people all across our country, in places like New York City, that are anxious now." Paul Martinka for NY Post
“At a time when American servicemembers are risking everything, Kathy Hochul should be supporting our troops, not attacking our country," Blakeman told The Post.
"Her comments are un-American and prove she is right in line with radicals like [New York City Mayor] Zohran Mamdani who blame America first instead of putting us first," he said.
Hochul, while blasting the Iranian regime as a global threat, said Sunday, "It’s deeply disturbing that we entered a war without an exit strategy, and sadly there’s people all across our country, in places like New York City, that are anxious now."
On Monday she said, "No one is ever going to defend that regime. Full stop."
The Iranian capital of Tehran on Tuesday after a strike. AFP via Getty Images
But the Democratic governor then questioned President Trump's actions aimed at toppling the Iranian mullahs and stopping the terror-sponsoring country from developing nuclear bombs.
"The scale of what is happening now demands answers. This has been described by the president as the largest military offensive the world has ever seen. So, what is the objective here?" Hochul said.
She also warned the war could lead to a spike in gas prices.
"It's going to have a direct effect on the pump right here in New York state, probably in a matter of days, if not hours as New Yorkers are going to again, see the impact of these decisions outside their own control," she said.
"The scale of what is happening now demands answers. This has been described by the president as the largest military offensive the world has ever seen. So, what is the objective here?" Hochul said. Parspix/ABACA/Shutterstock
But Hochul was more measured in her criticism than Democratic socialist Mamdani.
He called the US and Israeli strikes in Iran a "catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression."
"Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace," Mamdani said.
New York’s green policies could cost you lots of green.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration warned that gas prices could soar by $2.23 over the next five years — as she fuels up to fight with fellow Democrats to try to delay the state’s controversial green energy mandates.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing to delay the start of New York's climate law. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com
New York's gas prices currently hover around the national average. Paul Martinka for NY Post
An eye-opening memo leaked by Hochul’s camp details stunning projected fuel costs at the pump and for households if a cap-and-invest initiative goes into effect as planned under the Empire State’s climate laws.
New York officials struggling to meet the state’s ambitious green energy mandates amid rising utility costs are haunted by a fateful decision to close a nuclear plant that supplied power to the Big Apple and the Hudson Valley, critics told The Post.
People at the Indian Point nuclear plant protest with signs to "Save Indian Point" and "Shut Down Fossil Fuels." Getty Images
Indian Point Energy Center supplied 25% of the electricity to New York City and Westchester County, but the zero-emissions energy source closed in 2021 following opposition from environmental activists — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Kennedy’s ex-brother-in-law, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Critics, including energy experts, said shuttering Indian Point was a strategic blunder.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration admitted that an additional seven New Yorkers froze to death indoors, bringing the total fatalities from the recent cold snap to 29. The administration faces backlash for its handling of information regarding these deaths, particularly concerning those who died at home.
Mamdani has repeatedly said involuntary removals would be a last resort.
The US Supreme Court blocked Democrats from redrawing New York City's lone GOP-held House seat following an emergency appeal from Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.
Malliotakis had appealed to the high court earlier this month, after a Manhattan judge ruled her district's current map — which links Staten Island and southern Brooklyn — was “unconstitutional," and ordered it redrawn in January.
"This evening, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a stay in the NY-11 case,” New York GOP chairman Ed Cox wrote in a statement.
"This blatantly political case violated both the New York State and federal constitutions and, as Justice [Samuel] Alito stated, the lower court's decision was a full-blown racial gerrymander,” Cox said.
A separate appeal from Republicans to halt the Dems' attempts at redrawing the district lines was unanimously rejected by a mid-level state appellate court.
