President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised the move by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Highway Division to rescind federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program that began Jan. 5.
The program was hailed by Democrat leaders as a way to reduce traffic and raise billions of dollars to upgrade the city’s subway and bus systems.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
The toll reportedly ranged from $4.50 for motorcycles to $9 for passenger vehicles, and up to $21.60 for large trucks that enter a zone south of 60th Street in Manhattan. That was in addition to tolls drivers paid for crossing various bridges and tunnels to get to the city, although there was a credit of up to $3 for those who paid to enter Manhattan through certain tunnels during peak hours.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized the toll program, saying it “leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways.”
In November, Trump, whose Trump Tower building is in the toll zone, reportedly said congestion pricing “will put New York City at a disadvantage over competing cities and states, and businesses will flee.”
“Not only is this a massive tax to people coming in, it is extremely inconvenient from both driving and personal booking keeping standards,” he said at the time. “It will be virtually impossible for New York City to come back as long as the congestion tax is in effect.”
The toll was supposed to go into effect last year with a $15 charge, but Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul paused the program before the general election, when congressional races in suburban areas across the city were considered to be vital to her party’s effort to retake control of Congress.
Not long after the election, she rebooted the plan but at the lower $9 toll. She denied politics were at play and said she thought the original $15 charge was too much, though she had been a vocal supporter of the program before halting it.
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