President Trump will push Gov. Kathy Hochul on plans to build a natural gas pipeline through upstate New York when the two meet in Washington, DC on Friday.
Trump says he wants to revive the Constitution pipeline, a project killed by New York regulators in 2016 over concerns it could impact clean water supplies.
“We’re working on one project. It should be very easy. It’s a pipeline going through a small section of New York,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul at a roundtable at the State Capitol on March 11, 2025. Hans Pennink
A map of the proposed Constitutional natural gas pipeline in upstate New York. Mike Guillen/NY Post Design“New York state has held up this project for many years, but we won’t let that happen any longer. We will use federal approval!” Trump later posted to his social media network, Truth Social.
“We’re working on that. In fact, the governor’s coming in. Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul. She’s a very nice woman. She’s coming in tomorrow morning at 9:00, to meet me on that and other things. Not only that, but other things,” Trump added.
It’s unclear how exactly the president would go about reviving the project. Barron’s reports the CEO of Williams, the company that had pitched the constitution pipeline, said the firm has no interest in trying again to get it off the ground.
Trump wants to revive the Constitution pipeline in Upstate NY. AFP via Getty ImagesTrump and Hochul are also sure to discuss congestion pricing — the hated tolling program to drive into Manhattan that the US Department of Transportation moved to kill last month.
The Federal Highway Administration set a March 21 deadline for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to stop collecting the $9 toll on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
But Hochul and the MTA are fighting the feds, filing a lawsuit to preserve the new tax, which went into effect in January.
“He knows I want to talk about congestion pricing,” Hochul said Thursday, about her sit-down with Trump, adding she wants to continue discussions the two started when they met in the Oval Office last month.
“We’ll have quite an agenda,” she said.
In addition to congestion pricing and the pipeline, Hochul said the agenda is likely to include discussions about infrastructure, a redesign of Penn Station and energy concerns raised by Trump’s tariff spat with Canada.
The pair will discuss congestion pricing among other topics. Helayne SeidmanThe meeting comes days after Hochul blasted Trump for his tariff war in response to Ontario temporarily implementing a 25% surcharge on energy exports to some US states earlier this week.
Trump reiterated to reporters Thursday that he’s standing by his approach.
“Now there will be a little disruption,” he said.
“We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years,” he added. “Why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion?”
The meeting is the latest in Hochul’s seemingly on-again off-again attitude toward Trump — alternatively claiming she is leading the resistance against the president and trying to preserve a cooperative relationship with him.
