Trump slams NYC pied-à-terre tax, eyes federal block

President Donald Trump on Tuesday decried New York City‘s pied-à-terre tax and said he is exploring whether the federal government “has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late.”

The tax on nonprimary residences of wealthy owners “doesn’t work in America, and must be stopped, NOW!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Trump’s vow to seek federal intervention against the tax, which was pushed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and passed by the New York State legislature in late May, came one day after a Staten Island judge temporarily blocked the new policy.

New York City government quickly filed a motion to seek an appeal of that order, placing the judge’s order on hold.

Mamdani’s office did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s threat to challenge the pied-à-terre tax. Asked about the ongoing lawsuit, the mayor’s office referred CNBC to Mamdani’s assurance at a Monday press conference that “we look forward to vigorously defend our city’s position in court.”

“We are confident in our position,” Mamdani said. “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.”

Trump, in his Tuesday morning post, called the tax a “dangerous political ‘experiment’ in New York will destroy what was once a great City and State.”

Trump added that it’s hard for him as president “to sit back and watch it happen, especially to a place I once loved.”

Trump is a native New Yorker who lived in a penthouse in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, but moved his primary residence to his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida in 2019. It is unclear whether Trump or his immediate family would be subject to the NYC tax.

Trump also asserted that the levy on second homes is spurring thousands of people to flee to more tax-friendly regions, canceling out any revenue that the policy might bring in.

The claim echoes other warnings that have followed the election of Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has vowed to make the city’s richest pay more.

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, for instance, threatened to move his business to Miami after Mamdani unveiled the pied-à-terre tax in a video that featured Griffin’s ultraluxury Manhattan penthouse.

Griffin also suggested Citadel was reconsidering moving ahead with a pricey redevelopment of a Park Avenue building. Vornado CEO Steven Roth, however, said in a recent earnings call that Griffin was not abandoning his plans for the NYC building.

Some have shrugged off concerns that…