Onetime actuality TV star and present Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy posted a usually disrespectful tweet on Thursday attacking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over a congestion pricing program that goals to cut back New York Metropolis site visitors. Duffy introduced that the Trump administration is extending a deadline for the MTA to kill the profitable program by 30 days.
“Your refusal to end cordon pricing and your open disrespect towards the federal government is unacceptable,” Duffy wrote. “Your unlawful pricing scheme charges working-class citizens to use roads their federal tax dollars already paid to build.”
The extension comes lower than one month after Trump declared himself a “KING” and boasted that this system charging automobiles $9 to enter Manhattan’s busiest areas was “DEAD” and the town was “SAVED.” Trump has threatened to withhold billions in federal funds from the MTA and New York state if they don’t bend to the White Home’s bullying and scrap this system, whose proceeds are supposed to fund subway repairs and encourage mass transit.
“Congestion pricing is working. Traffic is down, business is up and support for this first-in-the-nation initiative continues to grow.” Hochul’s office responded in a statement. “We’ve seen Secretary Duffy’s tweet, which doesn’t change what Governor Hochul has been saying all along: the cameras are staying on.”
Indicators advising drivers of congestion pricing tolls are displayed close to the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel in New York on Feb. 19.
This system, which went into impact in January, has efficiently decreased site visitors, sped up public transportation, and begun to generate promised income for the MTA to make use of on infrastructure that advantages all New Yorkers.
Duffy’s tweet comes a day after stories that the transportation secretary is threatening to chop federal funding to the MTA until the company supplies the Trump administration with a plan to cut back supposedly rising crime on New York Metropolis subways. However in line with precise NYPD information, subway crime fell by 5.4% in 2024.
The New York Occasions notes that crime information has been publicly accessible for a while—all Duffy must do is test it. That didn’t cease the previous “Real World” star from releasing a fact-free video highlighting his TV appearances and claims that straphangers reside in fixed worry of crime.
Sadly for Duffy and the Trump administration, most onlookers see these bullying techniques as a traditional instance of the GOP’s hypocrisy on the subject of the states’ rights they declare to champion—and the stress marketing campaign doesn’t appear to be swaying New Yorkers. Polling since Trump threw his ego into the ring has proven rising help for this system throughout the Large Apple.
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