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Days after suggesting he is above the law, Donald Trump declared himself “king” following his administration’s push to strike down new tolls for Manhattan drivers to raise funds for the city’s aging mass transit system.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD,” he wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
The White House’s X account then shared his statement, with a mock cover of Time magazine featuring a portrait of the president wearing a crown with the caption “long live the king.”
White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich also shared an AI-generated image of the president wearing a crown and regal cape.
In a letter to New York Governor Kathy Huchul on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy outlined the president’s objections to the first-of-its-kind congestion pricing program, claiming that federal officials would be discussing plans with the state for the “orderly cessation of toll operations.”
Duffy called the program “backwards and unfair” and a “slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners.”
“Public transit is the lifeblood of New York City and critical to our economic future — as a New Yorker, like President Trump, knows very well,” Hochul fired back in response.
Since the program rolled out last month, vehicle congestion in New York has “dropped dramatically and commuters are getting to work faster than ever,” she said.
“We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” Hochul said.
She said her administration is suing the president to reverse his attempt to end the program.
Trump’s statement follows his declaration that “he who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” a message also shared by White House X accounts in an apparent endorsement of a belief that the president of the United States is incapable of breaking any law.
On Tuesday, the president — who has empowered Elon Musk to gut federal agencies while blocking congressionally approved funding and inviting major constitutional challenges in courtrooms across the country — issued an executive order to consolidate power by assuming regulatory control of independent agencies created by Congress, which are now no longer allowed to disagree with him.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority sued Duffy and federal transportation officials on Wednesday, arguing that the Trump administration unlawfully and “precipitously — and for blatantly political reasons— purported to ‘terminate’ the program, as then-candidate Trump proclaimed he would do in his first week in office.”
“The Administration’s efforts to summarily and unilaterally overturn the considered determinations of the political branches — federal, state, and city — are unlawful, and the Court should declare that they are null and void,” lawyers for the MTA argued.
This is a developing story
