President Donald Trump says he is exploring whether the federal government can intervene against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, turning a local fight over high-priced second homes into a White House fight.
The president’s warning came after a Staten Island judge temporarily halted the plan Monday, handing homeowners an early win in their lawsuit against Mamdani’s administration.
Trump framed the tax as more than a New York budget fight. In a Truth Social post, he described it as a threat to the city he once called home.
“This dangerous political ‘experiment’ in New York will destroy what was once a great City and State,” Trump wrote.
“It is pure Amateur Hour, and it’s hard, as President of the United States of America, to sit back and watch it happen, especially to a place I once loved. Financial, and then Social, RUIN, is a 100% certainty.”
Trump said he was now looking for a legal opening to fight the tax from Washington.
“This doesn’t work in America, and must be stopped, NOW! I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late,” he added.
He said the issue mattered to “the millions of people who cherish New York and want to see it thrive,” rather than become “a filthy, crime ridden, decrepit place of mockery and scorn.”
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Mamdani’s administration is not backing off. Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor, said the city plans to keep pursuing the surcharge despite the court order.
“The City will continue with the pied-à-terre’s implementation,” Rauschenbach said.
“We disagree with today’s ruling, but we are confident in both the pied-à-terre surcharge and the City’s ability to implement it fairly and effectively,” he added.
Mamdani also defended the tax Tuesday, tying it to public safety, schools and the city’s future.
“And that is a confidence coming from both the legality of the city’s actions, as well as the importance of a surcharge on secondary homes worth more than $5 million, a surcharge that will help fund safer streets, that will help fund stronger schools and it will help fund the city that New Yorkers deserve,” Mamdani remarked at a press conference.
The proposal would impose an annual charge on one-to-three-family homes, condominiums and co-ops valued above $5 million if the owner’s primary residence is outside New York City.
The tax entered the fight in April, when Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul argued that costly second homes should help close the city’s roughly $12 billion budget gap.
Mamdani described the plan then as aimed at “ultra-wealthy and global elites” who own property in the city.
Hochul also endorsed the idea in April. “If you can afford a $5 million second home that sits empty most of the year, you can afford to contribute like every other New Yorker,” Hochul said.
That political alliance has grown more complicated as the tax has run into legal trouble.
The pause came from Judge Wayne Ozzi, a Democrat on the state Supreme Court, in the homeowners’ challenge to the Mamdani administration.
City officials were ordered to remove the public pied-à-terre list, and the ruling blocked any further action on notices sent to roughly 17,000 property owners about the tax.
Hochul has kept her support for the tax concept, but she has also stressed that City Hall is responsible for how it is being carried out.
The governor said this week that New Yorkers are “frustrated with the rollout,” while adding, “We are not responsible for the rollout. This is something that we talked to the city about in advance.”
Jennifer Goodman, Hochul’s spokeswoman, also placed the legal fight with the city and the courts after Ozzi’s ruling.
“While this lawsuit about the administration of the tax is a matter for the city and the courts to work through, the governor continues to believe that people who can afford a multimillion-dollar second home in New York City can afford to pay their fair share,” Goodman stated on Monday.
The White House warning and the court fight come as Mamdani is already being pressed about how far he plans to go on taxing wealthy New Yorkers and corporations.
The New York Post reported that Mamdani is preparing a public campaign after Labor Day to build support for tax increases similar to proposals Hochul rejected in early 2026.
That timing would put the effort between Labor Day and the Legislature’s January 2027 return to Albany, with Hochul also facing a re-election campaign this fall.
Mamdani was asked about the reported plan last week during an interview with Fox 5 New York, but he kept steering the discussion to his work with Hochul on child care.
“The governor and I are in constant communication and, frankly, I appreciate her partnership because if it wasn’t for the governor, then we wouldn’t have been able to stand together to announce that we had more than 5,000 New Yorkers come forward to apply for these 2,000 free child care seats,” Mamdani said.
.@NYCMayor dodges on when exactly he plans to launch his official campaign to “tax the rich” which some speculate will be soon
Has he spoken with Gov Hochul & will he make this push before Nov?
“The conversations I've been having with the governor..are about the here and now” pic.twitter.com/ZEMcujmcIA
— Morgan McKay (@morganfmckay) August 6, 2026
He added that the program would expand to 12,000 seats.
When asked whether the Democratic Socialists of America would join the possible tax effort this fall, Mamdani again declined to get into post-election strategy.
“My focus right now is where we are, which is August, and ensuring that everything that we’re doing is keeping New Yorkers safe amidst a heat wave and preparing for the school year,” Mamdani said.
“A lot of the conversation about what comes after November, I think, is a conversation for what comes after November.”
Pressed on whether he planned to launch a tax-the-rich campaign before November, Mamdani gave the same kind of answer.
“The conversations I’ve been having with the governor and with my team are about the here and now and there will always be time for the conversations that come after that,” Mamdani said.
