Trump Eyes Federal Action To Stop Mamdani’s Pied-A-Terre Tax

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is examining whether the federal government has the authority to intervene against New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial pied-à-terre tax. 

“I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late, for the millions of people who cherish New York and want to see it thrive, as opposed to becoming a filthy, crime ridden, decrepit place of mockery and scorn,” Trump said.  

“The NYC pied-à-terre tax is costing New York City and state a fortune in that the money, eventually to be gotten, is very little compared to the taxes paid by the tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the City, never to return,” he added. 

Trump’s comments come after a New York state judge temporarily halted the city’s rollout of the tax Monday amid a lawsuit from three homeowners challenging how the Mamdani administration is implementing it.

Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi issued a temporary restraining order blocking the city from enforcing tax notices and requiring the Department of Finance to remove a supplemental property roll published as part of the tax’s implementation. The Mamdani administration appealed the order hours later, automatically staying Ozzi’s order and allowing the rollout to continue while the case proceeds.

The tax, championed by Mamdani and authorized by New York state lawmakers with the support of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, imposes an annual surcharge on high-value New York City homes that are not used as primary residences.

It generally targets second homes with market values exceeding $5 million. It also applies to condominiums and co-ops valued at more than $1 million. 

The controversy intensified after the city sent roughly 17,000 notices to homeowners whose properties officials believed could be subject to the surcharge. Some recipients said their properties were actually their primary residences and therefore should be exempt.

The Department of Finance also published a supplemental property roll containing roughly 960,000 properties. City officials have stressed that the roll includes residential properties that are not necessarily subject to the surcharge and is not a list of nearly one million people who will owe the tax.

The three homeowners suing the city are not challenging the legality of the tax itself. Instead, they argue that the Mamdani administration unlawfully shifted the burden onto homeowners to prove that their properties qualify for an exemption rather than requiring the city to first determine which properties are actually subject to the surcharge.

“The Mayor’s administration screwed up this rollout. It’s been a debacle, and it was in violation of state law,” Randy Mastro, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Monday. “The Mayor wanted to grab a quick headline, so he rushed it out and instead he violated the very law that the state passed authorizing him to impose.” 

A hearing in the case is scheduled for August 31.

Mamdani has promised to “vigorously defend” the city’s implementation of the tax in court.

A spokesperson for the mayor said Monday that the administration is “confident in both the pied-à-terre surcharge and the City’s ability to implement it fairly and effectively.”