The progressive celebration following the electoral victory of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has hit a major political and fiscal roadblock, with New York Governor Kathy Hochul publicly asserting that she will not support his centerpiece campaign promise: making all city buses free.
Mamdani, who campaigned aggressively on a platform of massive social expansion—including free transit and universal childcare—is quickly learning that the realities of state finance and the entrenched power of the moderate Democratic establishment are far stronger than his progressive mandate.
The plan to eliminate fares on all city buses, which Mamdani claimed would save riders over $2,000 annually and inject $1.3 billion into the local economy, was the defining proposal of his campaign.
Mamdani’s plan centered on a direct promise to his constituents: “We are going to eliminate the fare on every single bus line and make what are currently the slowest buses in the nation move around this city with ease.”
When pressed on how he would fund this massive overhaul, Mamdani asserted that the cost was manageable: “We will make buses free by replacing the revenue that the MTA currently gets from buses. This is revenue that’s around $700 million or so.”
He quickly minimized the cost by comparing it to corporate tax breaks, claiming it was “less money than Andrew Cuomo gave to Elon Musk… in tax credits.”
Governor Hochul, however, controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which manages the buses and subways. Her position is one of fiscal pragmatism, directly confronting Mamdani’s ideological vision.
Hochul’s response was a decisive and immediate veto of the proposal’s viability:
The Governor’s stance exposes Mamdani’s plan as an
The clash over the bus fares is not merely a budgetary disagreement; it is a profound power struggle between New York City’s progressive political ambition and the state’s central administrative control.
Hochul’s refusal to support the free bus plan is rooted in her need to maintain fiscal discipline and stability in a state currently facing severe tax revenue volatility. Her position asserts that while Mamdani is the Mayor-elect, he must operate within the state’s financial realities.
Fiscal Responsibility: The Governor is responsible for the overall state budget and the solvency of the MTA. Sacrificing $700 million in dedicated transit revenue without a secure, long-term replacement plan is viewed as reckless.
Mamdani’s early confrontation with the Governor immediately sets a political ceiling on his most radical proposals. He must now either:
Find a New Funding Source:
Adjust His Ambition:
The situation forces Mamdani to reconcile his revolutionary campaign rhetoric with the bureaucratic and financial conservatism of the state machine.
The core takeaway from the bus debacle is a harsh lesson in political governance:
Mamdani and his supporters view the cost as minimal compared to the wealth of the rich and corporations. However, without the power to unilaterally seize or reallocate those funds—a power he lacks at the city level—his campaign promises remain just that: promises.
The immediate pushback from Governor Hochul ensures that the new Mayor-elect will spend his initial months in office not implementing his visionary platform, but fighting his own party leadership over basic budgetary compliance.
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President Donald Trump on Saturday went after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), again invoking her Somali heritage and urging her to “go back,” a line he has used several times since taking office.
“She should go back!” Trump said on Truth Social, alongside a video clip of Omar speaking to a crowd in which she said her allegiance would always be with her native country.
It was not immediately clear when the video was recorded, but the footage has circulated for weeks on conservative-leaning social media accounts.
Omar was born in Somalia and fled the country’s civil war at age 8, later spending four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States in 1995.
She became an American citizen in 2000 and has served in Congress since 2019.
Trump’s latest post quickly gained traction online, with supporters including conservative activist Laura Loomer amplifying it across social media platforms.
The former president’s comments come amid renewed scrutiny of Omar’s record in Congress and her frequent clashes with House Republicans.
It is not the first time in recent months that Trump has suggested Omar should be removed from the country.
“You know, I met the head of Somalia, did you know that?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in September.
“And I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back,” Trump said. “He said, ‘I don’t want her.’”
The exchange echoed comments Trump made during his first term, when he accused Omar and other members of the so-called “Squad” of “telling us how to run our country.”
Omar has often been one of Trump’s most frequent critics, accusing him of using race and religion as political weapons.
Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest remarks.
Speaking Friday on “The Dean Obeidallah Show,” Omar dismissed talk of deportation or citizenship challenges.
“I have no worry,” she said. “I don’t know how they’d take away my citizenship and, like, deport me.”
“But I don’t even know why that’s such a scary threat,” Omar added. “I’m not the 8-year-old who escaped war anymore. I’m grown, my kids are grown. I could go live wherever I want if I wanted to.”
“It’s a weird thing to wake up every single day to bring that into every single conversation — ‘we’re gonna deport Ilhan,’” she said.
Omar faced new calls for her removal from office and even the revocation of her U.S. citizenship last month after she reposted a video online that accused Kirk of denying “the genocide happening in Palestine” and spreading “racist dog whistles.”
In a separate interview with broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, she described herself as “mortified” by Kirk’s murder and expressed empathy for his wife and two children, but also criticized his positions on race relations and gun rights, particularly in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
Her remarks drew immediate backlash from Republicans, who accused Omar of downplaying the tragedy and fueling political division. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), whose office is near Omar’s on Capitol Hill, introduced a resolution to censure her and remove her from House committees. That motion failed by a single vote, 214–213, after four Republicans joined Democrats to table it.
Mace has since gone further, suggesting Omar’s U.S. citizenship should be revoked. “We would love to see you deported back to Somalia next,” Mace wrote in a social media post. Others online echoed similar calls, citing longstanding allegations that Omar committed immigration and marriage fraud.
Adding to the controversy is renewed attention to Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed. Somali-language obituaries described him as a senior officer in the regime of dictator Siad Barre, which ruled Somalia for decades and carried out atrocities against rival ethnic groups.
Fact-checking organizations like Snopes and Politifact disputed those claims in 2019, describing Nur as a “teacher trainer.”