What lefty leaders need to do to make NY great again after Trump’s victory, pols and pundits reveal
New York’s lefty leaders must swallow their pride and work with President-elect Donald Trump if they want to make the Empire State great again, pols and pundits told The Post.
Melissa DeRosa, a former top aide for Democratic ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said Trump’s improved performance in nearly New York county compared to his past presidential campaigns shows voters in the historically blue state felt “the pendulum shifted too far to the left,” and they now “want a centrist government.”
“[New Yorkers] want to feel safe; they are sick of overregulation. That was the message,” said DeRosa, adding Trump and other Republicans’ Election Day victories were a “rebuke” to far-left policies being pushed by NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, state Attorney General Letitia James, and other like-minded pols.
Trump “can be helpful” to his home state, especially on infrastructure improvements, DeRosa said, based on Cuomo’s past dealings with the ex-president while both were in office.
But James and Gov. Kathy Hochul promising to fight many of the president-elect’s platforms during a divisive post-election press conference Wednesday won’t benefit New Yorkers, she added.
“They came out blazing like it was 2016,” she added. “It was like they lost the plot. I was embarrassed for them.”
Hochul appeared to open the door to change when she called Trump Thursday to congratulate him on being re-elected to the White House.
The pair’s chat touched on the Big Apple’s deteriorating transit infrastructure, and Trump, who opposes congestion tolling, expressed interest in working with Hochul to fix up Penn Station and the subways, sources told The Post.
They also discussed the feds helping fund a Second Avenue Subway extension and bringing a semiconductor plant with 50,000 jobs to Central New York.
“I believe President Trump, just like me, loves New York but dislikes our left-wing and incompetent government,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
“He helped build our city and will protect New Yorkers by killing the congestion-pricing tax and deporting the foreign gangs and criminals wreaking havoc,” she predicted.
When Trump is sworn in as president in January, he’ll have the power to block the controversial congestion-tolling plan for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street by either refusing to sign off on the plan or demanding a new environmental review.
Hochul paused congestion pricing in June but is reportedly eyeing ways to revive the plan before President Biden leaves the White House. Her office recently contacted the U.S. Department of Transportation to see if lowering the planned $15 toll requires another lengthy environmental review, Politico reported Friday.
The city and state, however, is better served working with Trump to secure federal matching funds for transportation infrastructure projects and other needs rather than socking New Yorkers with a “congestion tax” — while at the same time spending a fortune dealing with a migrant crisis created by Biden, said Malliotakis.
The city’s $5 billion price-tag to house migrants is sheer “stupidity when we have so many other needs,” the congresswoman added.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos, a progressive Queens Dem and staunch Trump critic said if a “second Trump administration is anything like the first, our New York values will be tested daily.”
“I had a front-row seat to this relationship at City Hall back in 2016, and I know the chaos that has just been empowered,” added Ramos, a former aide for far-left ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio who is planning to run for mayor next year.
When asked whether she has faith Trump can fix the subways without congestion pricing, Ramos said “If he’s saying he’s going to do it, he better deliver.”
Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said he hopes “some reasonable Democrats” will with work with Trump, “but I am certain that there will be a cadre that doubles down on the wokeness and forgets why they got spanked [on Election Day] in the first place.”
Evan Thies, a longtime consultant for moderate Dem campaigns including Mayor Adams’, said it’s time for New Yorkers to put politics aside and work together for their own good.
“Trump campaigned on a populist message, including promises that he would help working people,” he said. “To deliver on that, New York’s leaders — who are all Democrats — should outline an agenda that gives the new administration a chance to make good on those promises through policy and spending. If we don’t, I fear we could be in for four years of pain.”
Adams on Thursday told reporters said he “communicated” with Trump after Election Day to remind him the city faces “many issues” – including infrastructure problems – and that he hopes both his administration and the White House can “work together” to fix them. Adams declined to say whether he congratulated the president-elect.
