Kathrine Frich
When political enemies meet face to face, the tension usually fills the room.
But when a conservative president and a democratic socialist mayor first met in the Oval Office last year, the interaction was bizarre.
President Donald Trump actually helped Mayor Zohran Mamdani handle a reporter asking if the mayor still considered the president a fascist. Trump famously laughed and said he did not mind the label, telling Mamdani he could simply say yes.
Now, that surprisingly cordial relationship faces a massive new test.
The two politicians are openly clashing over a controversial new tax proposal that threatens to push billionaires out of New York City.
A high stakes feud
Donald Trump recently jumped into a bitter public dispute between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin. The fierce argument centers entirely around a controversial push to heavily tax secondary homes.
Mamdani recently filmed a campaign video promoting his wealth tax proposal. The mayor recorded the clip while standing directly outside a massive luxury penthouse owned by Griffin.
Griffin quickly fired back at the political stunt. He publicly labeled the promotional video “creepy and weird” according to the original report from Forbes.
The billionaire then threatened to expand his massive business operations in Florida rather than bringing new jobs to New York. During a Tuesday interview with radio host Sid Rosenberg, Trump eagerly weighed in on the standoff.
Warning of an exodus
The former president issued a stark warning about the economic consequences of aggressively attacking wealthy residents. He insisted that driving away major taxpayers creates a deeply threatening situation for local governments.
“You won’t have a city left. You won’t have a state left. Very, very dangerous thing that’s happening right now,” Trump told Rosenberg during the broadcast.
He specifically noted that wealthy business leaders provide essential financial support that local municipalities simply cannot replace once it vanishes.
Trump claimed that losing “people like Ken… would be a big loss for New York,” adding that the financial damage from their departure would be “not recoverable.”
Surprising market numbers
Despite all the political doom and gloom on the radio waves, the mayor actually just dropped a completely separate plan to hike overall property taxes by ten percent. Furthermore, the luxury housing market continues to boom.
Data from Olshan Realty shared by CNBC shows high end real estate sales actually increased significantly last month. Contracts for apartments priced over four million dollars hit a massive volume of over one billion dollars total.
Donna Olshan told CNBC that the wealthy are clearly not running away from the city just yet. Her data completely contradicts the panic over millionaire flight.
“The last four weeks demonstrates that an impending pied-à-terre tax has had no effect on the luxury market in Manhattan,” Olshan told the financial network.
Sources: Forbes, CNBC, Olshan Realty, Sid Rosenberg
