Gov. Kathy Hochul says she'll 'fight like hell' to keep Trump from yanking federal funding

Gov. Kathy Hochul promised Tuesday to "fight like hell" to dissuade President Donald Trump from carrying out his threats to yank federal funding from New York if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor.

Speaking after Mamdani appeared at her side at an unrelated event in Queens about funding youth programs and housing, Hochul said she’d appeal to Trump — who earlier in the day called Mamdani a "down-and-dirty" communist — as a former New Yorker himself.

For months, Trump has repeatedly said he’d throttle funding to New York, and has done so on several occasions — including recently with $18 billion in already approved infrastructure projects — with varying degrees of success.

"This is detrimental to his properties, his business interests, his friends in the city, and a whole way of life, that I know that, perhaps, some day, he'll even come back to," Hochul said of the president's latest threat.

She added: "Regarding this threat of withholding all money from New York, I’m willing to go back at it and explain why that is not in the interest of the White House or the nation to take such drastic efforts to punish you, New York, I presume, for the people having the right to exercise their vote in a democracy."

The event was the first time Mamdani and Hochul appeared together since her endorsement of him last month.

Polls have shown that Mamdani, whose surprising upset victory in the June primary stunned the political establishment when he trounced then-favored candidate, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, is almost certain to win the general election on Nov. 4. Trump had hoped to see the race narrowed down to be between Cuomo and Mamdani, so Cuomo would have a better chance of winning. But while the incumbent, Eric Adams, dropped out, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa — whom Trump disparaged as a feline fanatic who is "not exactly prime time" — has refused to leave the race.

Trump said Tuesday of Mamdani: "I wouldn’t be generous to a communist, a guy that’s gonna take the money and throw it out the window, cause you’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, and we’re not gonna let somebody get into office and squander the taxpayer money from this country."

Mamdani is a democratic socialist, and while he's touted "the end goal of seizing the means of production," he said he's not a communist.

Blue state leaders have used a variety of means — personal appeals, the bully pulpit, litigation — to combat Trump moves to withhold funding. 

"There's no person who's sat in the Oval Office who understands more than Donald Trump that New York City is the economic engine for the entire state. And just as no one should ever root against our country, we should not root against New York City," Hochul said.

Mamdani has said he would follow the model set by blue state leaders and fight Trump via lawsuits. 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.