Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for mayor of New York, accused President Trump on Friday of trying to harm the city’s economy with his administration’s decision this week to freeze $18 billion in federal funding for two of the country’s largest infrastructure initiatives.
“It shows how little he thinks of the people from the city that he likes to remind us he is from,” said Mr. Mamdani, standing above a construction site in Manhattan for one of the projects, a $16 billion rail tunnel being built under the Hudson River. “These are the actions of one who is cruel to this city.”
Mr. Mamdani said that the consequences could be “immensely serious” if the Trump administration did not soon restore the already approved money for that project, known as Gateway, and for the other, the expansion of the Second Avenue subway line.
With about a month until Election Day, Mr. Mamdani argued that he and not his chief rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, was the strongest candidate to stand up to the Trump administration following a series of cuts, as well as threats of cuts, to federal funds in New York.
Mr. Cuomo on Thursday denounced the Trump administration’s funding freeze, as well as its cut of $187 million in counterterrorism funds for the state that was later restored.
“It’s reckless, and it’s irresponsible,” he said, noting that Mr. Trump’s tactics showed he could still interfere with the city without sending in the National Guard, as he has elsewhere.
The largest funding threat to New York, by far, has been the announcement by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday, the first day of the government shutdown, that his department would withhold $18 billion approved under the previous administration because of concerns with diversity, equity and inclusion requirements in contracts for the projects.
Mr. Duffy said that the department would pause the funds during a review of both projects. But those reviews could not move forward because department employees had been furloughed during the shutdown.
Despite the freeze, work on both infrastructure projects has continued, for now.
What prompted the funding freeze was a new rule from the Transportation Department on federal contracting issued late on Tuesday that went into effect just hours before the government shutdown.
The rule upends a 40-year federal government initiative aimed at helping businesses owned by people considered “socially and economically disadvantaged,” which has included women and minority groups. Recipients of federal transit funding had to ensure that 10 percent of aid was awarded to such businesses, part of a program called Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, or DBE.
But starting this week, groups that receive federal transit funds across the country can no longer automatically classify women and minority groups as “disadvantaged.” For such businesses to qualify for DBE funds, they now have to provide a “personal narrative” with evidence that they have faced economic hardship, systemic barriers and been denied business opportunities.
Despite the new rules applying to everyone, the Trump administration singled out only the New York City projects in a news release and social media posts.