Trump Slams Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Tax as Judge Halts Implementation

President Donald Trump slammed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax on certain second properties in a Tuesday post on Truth Social and threatened federal action.

The president said the tax “is costing New York City and State a fortune in that the money, eventually to be gotten, is very little compared to to [sic] the TAXES PAID by the tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the City, never to return. Florida, Texas, and numerous other States, are making an absolute fortune!”

“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 stated.

On Monday, Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi ruled that the city must remove the tax listing of 960,000 properties it posted online in July. That followed a lawsuit by three homeowners who said that “the City incorrectly identified their homes as potentially subject to the surcharge despite those properties serving as their primary residences.”

Randy Mastro, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement that the ruling “vindicated the rights of hundreds of thousands of New York City homeowners who were subjected to a process they never should have been a part of in the first place.”

The lawsuit did not challenge Mamdani’s tax; rather, it challenged the implementation by which the names, addresses, and property values of secondary residences were listed online, despite some of those properties serving as primary residences. Plaintiffs said the burden of proof to determine eligibility for the tax should be on the city, not homeowners, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The judge ordered the city to cease “continuing to post on the website of the New York City Department of Finance, or otherwise allowing public access to, the Supplemental Roll listing the names, addresses, and property values of more than 900,000 New York City homeowners described by the City Respondents as ‘related to’ the Surcharge.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the “court also banned the city from taking any additional enforcement action on the tax warning notices that have already been mailed to 17,000 homeowners.”

Critics of the tax celebrated the ruling on social media.

“A Staten Island judge just stopped [Zohran Mamdani]’s tax machine cold, and exposed how reckless his administration really is,” Joseph Hernandez, a Republican running for state comptroller wrote on X.

Mamdani said that he would challenge the ruling and insisted that the pied-à-terre tax would eventually go into effect.

“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,” Mamdani spokesman Matt Rauschenbach said according to the Wall Street Journal. “This surcharge asks those who own second homes valued at $5 million or more to contribute their fair share to the city they benefit from.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., who approved the tax along with state lawmakers, said according to the New York Post, that the state was “not responsible for the rollout” and that it was up to New York City to “streamline” the process of implementation.

“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,” a Hochul spokesperson said according to the Post.