Kathy Hochul Has A Few Choice Words For King Donald

'New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years.'

‘Think about this the next time you’re stuck in traffic.’ Video screenshot, NBC New York on YouTube

On Wednesday, feeling a little full of himself, and possibly wanting to Own The Libs after widespread condemnation of his declaration Tuesday that only he can say what US law means, Donald Trump — prematurely, as ever — got on Twitter to celebrate his victory over New York’s congestion pricing plan, a traffic and greenhouse-emissions reduction program that went into effect in early January. Most private cars entering lower Manhattan are charged a $9 toll using the EZ Pass system, with sensors and cameras all over the place for enforcement. (Cars not equipped with EZ Pass have a bill sent to their registered owner.) The fees will go to upgrade and expand the city’s mass transit system, as well as to make it accessible to people with disabilities, as required by law.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday to order an end to congestion pricing, claiming that the federal government has jurisdiction over the roads leading into the city. The New York Times reports today (gift link) that the law isn’t anywhere so clear on that, which is why New York immediately sued to block the order from going into effect. But that’s not quite what this article is about.

As we mentioned, Donald Trump cares not for mere trivialities like “the law,” because HE AM THE LAW, didn’t you hear him? So he had the White House tweet out a great big picture of him in a crown, no doubt made by one of his drooling fans using AI, we don’t care, with his message of liberation to New Yorkers who were sick and tired of shorter commute times and less traffic, exactly as congestion pricing had promised.

The image was made to look like the cover of Time Magazine, possibly as a rebuke to the real magazine which recently depicted Elon Musk sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Trump the Benevolent said, “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Yeah, that didn’t go over well in New York.

Hochul arranged a presser at Grand Central Station to tell Trump that this tyranny will not stand, man, and then she lit into him with a full barrage of anti-monarchical rhetoric that would do Thomas Paine proud. Or maybe Spy magazine, we dunno.

Enjoy at least the first few minutes, which are delicious!

Hochul offered a brief timeline of the day’s events:

At 1 p.m. today, the U.S. Department of Transportation emailed us a letter from Secretary Duffy announcing their attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the state of New York. At 1:58 p.m. President Donald Trump tweeted, 'Long live the king.' I'm here to say New York hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years. We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington.

Oh, very nice. DO go on!

Hochul said that the toll cameras will stay on, and that they’ll stay on until a court says otherwise. “We're in fight mode,” Hochul said, adding that none of this came as a surprise, since Trump had been publicly threatening it since congestion pricing went into effect. “We knew this could come; we filed a lawsuit within minutes. I'm very confident we'll be successful.”

She vowed to fight the administration as far as necessary to protect New York’s power to set its own transportation policy, saying “The bear’s been poked” and telling Trump that while she’s willing to hold negotiations as equal partners in governing, “You went too far because you came after New Yorkers.”

As for Sean Duffy, she added, “It’s not ‘The Real World,’ Sean. This is real life for New Yorkers.”

We’re all for more of this from more Democrats, every damn day.

One more thing to note before we go is how pathetically sad this “king of New York” thing really is for Trump, if you go back into his biography, if you watch the new film The Apprentice, if you study what insecurities make him tick. This is a sadness and humiliation that lives deep in his core, the utter rejection of him by the real movers and shakers of the city of New York.

Then, as now, they are laughing at him.

Oh, also too, we know a lot of readers and Bluesky folks are SO DAMN MAD that Hochul won’t be firing Eric Adams probably, so we just want to remind you of this here skeep or skoot or whatever from Lawrence O’Donnell, which he also ‘splained on his show last night.

Also too, while I couldn’t find a video of the segment, here’s MSNBC’s audio-only version of The Last Word, cued up to O’Donnell’s fairly detailed explanation of why no, Hochul can’t simply shitcan Adams. If the silly thing tells you to “sign in” to prove you’re not a bot, just go have a listen at YouTube.

So no, not wanting to open THAT can of worms just yet probably doesn’t make Hochul a Quisling or stuff, and there’s still more on that yet to come. As yr Comments Moderator, I ask you to please BEHAAAAVE YOURSELVES!

OPEN THREAD.

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Trump Am The Law

New York City Oppressing Manhattanites With Cleaner Air, Less Traffic

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[NBC News / NYT (gift link) / StreetsBlog NYC]

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