Latest news with #Adams'
Politico
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Politico
Why Zohran Mamdani's win matters — and why it doesn't
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND — Depending on whom you listen to, Zohran Mamdani is either 'the feeling of dawn after a long night' or 'a 100% Communist Lunatic.' But no matter one's opinion of his politics, a narrative has begun to firm up in the days since the 33-year-old democratic socialist's surprise romp in the New York City mayoral primary: His election represents a watershed moment in national politics. It's not an idea that's entirely based in reality. It's not even a notion that Mamdani himself seems to foster. Rather, it's an assumption that is largely emanating from outside New York City. The hyperventilation surrounding Mamdani's victory is the provenance of those with only a glancing knowledge of the inner-workings of New York government and politics. The glow of a victory in a New York City mayoral primary can be intoxicating for election watchers and the pundit class. In a mirror image of our current moment, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams was hailed as a potential national Democratic star after his 2021 election and a repudiation of left-wing politics at the beginning of the Biden era. By March of this year, Adams' star had burned out: His approval rating had dropped to 20%. It's a familiar story. Before Adams, the last New York mayor to not launch a disastrous and short-lived campaign for president was David Dinkins, whose term ended in 1993 at the hands of an ambitious crime fighter named Rudy Giuliani. The job, often described as the 'second toughest' in America (after that of president), tarnishes the shine of every occupant of City Hall. The mayor is required to be the leader of a city that at every turn resists caricature and is in a constant state of change. He — and every New York City mayor to date has been a man — must work within an intractable bureaucracy and with state legislators and a governor often intent on stopping his political priorities in their tracks. He has to deal with drivers furious with congestion pricing regulations but also New Yorkers who never bothered to get their driver's license and wake up cursing the MTA. He is forced to represent a city of 8 million on a global stage and host the world's most powerful people while remaining laser focused on solving the deeply diverse and contradictory needs of its shockingly rich and desperately poor residents. The job is perhaps best summed up by a now-famous Onion headline that fictitiously describes former Mayor Bill de Blasio relishing Adams' failures: 'Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Find A Mayor That Doesn't Suck Shit, Huh?' Thanks to those extremes, the New York City mayor's office is no natural launching pad for higher office — even if scores of former residents of Gracie Mansion thought otherwise. The timing of Mamdani's primary victory in the heavily Democratic city is also playing a role in distorting political reality. New York's mayoral primary always takes place roughly six months after each presidential election, in the media capital of the world. Thus it's among the earliest and most conspicuous barometers measuring the post-election national environment. In all of Mamdani's national media appearances since the election, he steers questions about the broader implications of his victory back to questions facing city residents. Unlike Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who hinted at his own national ambitions during the primary, Mamdani seems interested in governing the city first, which was part of his appeal. Where he has been willing to engage national media outlets has been on broader questions of strategy — that he won by talking about an affordability crisis. 'I think there's a question of how we return back to what made so many of us proud to be Democrats,' he told ABC News on Wednesday. 'I think it's that focus on an economic agenda, on ensuring that people can do more than just struggle.' That campaign — the message and the messenger, the slick videos that kept going viral and the way he expanded the electorate — is sure to be studied by national Democrats. Mamdani enters the general election with little publicly stated interest in higher office. And the city where he's now in pole position to govern remains a good bet to dim his boy wonder shine. But even if the siren call of the national stage at some point becomes impossible to resist, don't expect another vanity run for president by a New York City mayor — the U.S. Constitution wouldn't allow the Uganda-born Mamdani to hold the office. What'd I Miss? — Supreme Court hands Trump major win, limits judges' ability to block birthright citizenship order nationwide: The Supreme Court has handed President Donald Trump a major victory by narrowing nationwide injunctions that blocked his executive order purporting to end the right to birthright citizenship. In doing so, the court sharply curtailed the power of individual district court judges to issue injunctions blocking federal government policies nationwide. The justices, in a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, said that in most cases, judges can only grant relief to the individuals or groups who brought a particular lawsuit and may not extend those decisions to protect other individuals without going through the process of converting a lawsuit into a class action. — Supreme Court OKs opt-out for LGBTQ+ materials in school: The Supreme Court has sided with a group of parents demanding that their public schools be required to provide notices to opt their children out of certain storybook readings that conflict with their religious beliefs. Today's 6-3 ruling, split along ideological lines, found that Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools violated parents' First Amendment rights to religious exercise by not giving them advanced notice or an opportunity to opt their children out of certain lessons. The school board had initially allowed parents to opt out of lessons, but the board's policy reversal in the 2023-2024 school year sparked a legal challenge. — Trump backs away from July 4 megabill deadline: President Donald Trump today backed off the July 4 deadline he set for Congress to pass his megabill, acknowledging the timing could slip as Republicans work through a series of political and logistical hurdles. 'It's not the end-all,' Trump said of the self-imposed Independence Day goal. 'It can go longer, but we'd like to get it done by that time if possible.' The remarks represented a clear softening of the White House's position from just a day earlier, when Trump administration officials insisted the GOP lawmakers pass the domestic policy package within a week despite a series of fresh obstacles. Senate Republican leaders are still struggling to lock down the necessary 51 votes for the bill, amid objections from competing factions over the depth of the legislation's Medicaid cuts. — Trump says he's 'terminating' all trade discussions with Canada: President Donald Trump said today he is 'terminating' all trade discussions with Canada, effective immediately, because of its Digital Services Tax, and that he would announce new tariffs on the country within the next seven days. 'We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with … has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country,' Trump said in a Truth Social post. Canada's Digital Services Tax, which imposes a 3 percent tax on large foreign and domestic digital companies that make over C$20 million in revenue, is expected to come into force on Saturday. The tax applies to certain Canadian profits that companies make from online advertising, social media, online marketplaces and the sale and licensing of user data. — UVA president resigns amid pressure from Trump administration: University of Virginia President James E. Ryan announced his resignation today, a swift response to calls from the Trump administration to step down amid the Justice Department's probe into the school's diversity, equity and inclusion practices. 'To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this University. But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,' Ryan said in an email sent to UVA community members, which was shared with POLITICO. Ryan is the latest university leader to come under pressure from the Trump administration, as dozens of other elite universities face scrutiny and pressure from the president to claw back DEI policies. AROUND THE WORLD NEW WORLD ORDER — For six months, Donald Trump has upended the global trading order, threatening and announcing tariffs, then easing them to open negotiations, while warning that punitive levies will be reimposed if the terms are not to his liking. With just 13 days until the Trump-imposed deadline to conclude a EU-U.S. deal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decided the time for conventional negotiating tactics was over. She floated the idea that the EU's 27 countries could join forces with 12 members of the Asian-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership bloc (CPTPP) — which now includes the U.K. — to form a new world trade initiative. The new grouping would redesign a rules-based global trading order, reforming or perhaps even replacing the now largely defunct World Trade Organization, she said. Crucially, the U.S. would not automatically be invited. SHOWING UP — A who's who of European politicians is descending on Budapest in a battle of wills with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, seeking to defy his government's ban on Saturday's Pride parade. After weeks of silence, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally backed the celebrations in a video statement on Wednesday. 'I call on the Hungarian authorities to allow the Budapest Pride to go ahead,' she said. 'To the LGBTIQ+ community in Hungary and beyond: I will always be your ally.' While von der Leyen will not be there in person to defy Orbán, more than 70 members of the European Parliament do plan to attend. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP FIXER UPPER — New York City's empty churches are getting a chance at rebirth. Developers are eyeing the buildings, some in neighborhoods 'where a square foot costs roughly the same as an ounce of gold,' to develop apartments and condos. By some estimates churches across the city could be repurposed into homes of nearly 100,000 households. Justin Davidson argues in New York Magazine that the right way to renovate must involve preserving the churches' facade and a neighborhood's cultural history. Parting Image Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ex-NYC Mayor Eric Adams campaign vendor accused of SoHo assault donated to him at ritzy fundraiser
NEW YORK — Trent Pool, a conservative political consultant accused of assaulting his girlfriend in a Manhattan hotel, donated the legal max amount to Mayor Eric Adams' reelection effort as part of a fundraiser last year — and was months later hired by the campaign to do petitioning work, the Daily News has learned. The fundraiser itself may also have violated campaign finance rules as Adams' team failed to disclose cryptocurrency tycoon Brock Pierce's role in hosting the event. Pool, who's known for managing petitioning for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s failed 2024 presidential campaign, was arrested in April 2024 on charges alleging he strangled his partner at the SoHo Grand Hotel. As reported by Gothamist this week, Adams' campaign paid Pool some $175,000 this spring to do petitioning work to secure an independent line for the mayor on November's general election ballot. Pool's hire came as he was in the middle of fighting his assault case — which remains pending in Manhattan Criminal Court — and Adams' campaign responded to Gothamist's report by saying it'd cut ties with Pool, adding that the mayor was unaware of the charges against him and 'has never had contact with' him. Records obtained by The News via a Freedom of Information Law request nonetheless reveal that months before being hired, Pool contributed $2,100, the legal max, to Adams' reelection campaign as part of an exclusive fundraiser in Puerto Rico attended by the mayor. The Dec. 10, 2024 fundraiser, hosted at Pierce's San Juan mansion, raised a total of $13,404 from nine individuals, including Pool, the records show. As required, the records were submitted to the city Campaign Finance Board by Adams' team to disclose all fundraiser attendees who gave in connection with the event. Thomas Keniff, Pool's criminal lawyer, declined to comment Friday on his client's participation in the fundraiser, but said he 'has supported and donated to Eric Adams, along with many other common sense candidates nationwide.' 'As to his pending criminal charges, Mr. Pool maintains his innocence and looks forward to being fully exonerated,' Keniff added. Pool's case is slated to go to trial next month. 'Mayor Adams has no recollection of ever meeting Trent Pool in any setting, but the campaign sometimes acts independently on hiring independent contractors,' an Adams campaign spokesman said when asked about his interactions with Trent and reliance on his services. Pierce, a pro-Trump investor and billionaire, threw the fundraiser for Adams while the mayor was on the island for a cryptocurrency conference. The private event came as Adams was still under indictment on federal corruption charges that were months later dismissed at the request of President Donald Trump's Department of Justice as part of a deal many believe has left the mayor beholden to Trump's agenda. Given that Pierce's event raised more than $500, Adams' team under campaign finance law was required to either report Pierce as a so-called 'intermediary' or pay him for hosting the shindig. However, Adams' campaign didn't report Pierce as an intermediary and there is no record it paid Pierce for hosting, records show. A spokesman for the Campaign Finance Board declined to comment. Vito Pitta, Adams' campaign compliance attorney, didn't immediately return a request for comment. The revelations about Pool — who was reportedly spotted at the U.S. Capitol during the deadly pro-Trump Jan. 6, 2021 attack, though he denies participating in any violence — come as Adams is kickstarting his independent run for reelection amid various headwinds. Continuing to face political fallout from his indictment, Adams held a formal reelection campaign launch rally at City Hall Thursday, where he assailed the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, as unfit for office. Several of Adams' longtime supporters joined him at the event, including Sheikh Musa Drammeh, a Bronx community leader who called him the 'moral clarity mayor.' -------- —With Josephine Stratman
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ex-Adams campaign vendor accused of SoHo assault donated to him at ritzy fundraiser
Trent Pool, a conservative political consultant accused of assaulting his girlfriend in a Manhattan hotel, donated the legal max amount to Mayor Adams' reelection effort as part of a fundraiser last year — and was months later hired by the campaign to do petitioning work, the Daily News has learned. The fundraiser itself may also have violated campaign finance rules as Adams' team failed to disclose cryptocurrency tycoon Brock Pierce's role in hosting the event. Pool, who's known for managing petitioning for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s failed 2024 presidential campaign, was arrested in April 2024 on charges alleging he strangled his partner at the SoHo Grand Hotel. As reported by Gothamist this week, Adams' campaign paid Pool some $175,000 this spring to do petitioning work to secure an independent line for the mayor on November's general election ballot. Pool's hire came as he was in the middle of fighting his assault case — which remains pending in Manhattan Criminal Court — and Adams' campaign responded to Gothamist's report by saying it'd cut ties with Pool, adding that the mayor was unaware of the charges against him and 'has never had contact with' him. Records obtained by The News via a Freedom of Information Law request nonetheless reveal that months before being hired, Pool contributed $2,100, the legal max, to Adams' reelection campaign as part of an exclusive fundraiser in Puerto Rico attended by the mayor. The Dec. 10, 2024 fundraiser, hosted at Pierce's San Juan mansion, raised a total of $13,404 from nine individuals, including Pool, the records show. As required, the records were submitted to the city Campaign Finance Board by Adams' team to disclose all fundraiser attendees who gave in connection with the event. Thomas Keniff, Pool's criminal lawyer, declined to comment Friday on his client's participation in the fundraiser, but said he 'has supported and donated to Eric Adams, along with many other common sense candidates nationwide.' 'As to his pending criminal charges, Mr. Pool maintains his innocence and looks forward to being fully exonerated,' Keniff added. Pool's case is slated to go to trial next month. 'Mayor Adams has no recollection of ever meeting Trent Pool in any setting, but the campaign sometimes acts independently on hiring independent contractors,' an Adams campaign spokesman said when asked about his interactions with Trent and reliance on his services. Pierce, a pro-Trump investor and billionaire, threw the fundraiser for Adams while the mayor was on the island for a cryptocurrency conference. The private event came as Adams was still under indictment on federal corruption charges that were months later dismissed at the request of President Trump's Department of Justice as part of a deal many believe has left the mayor beholden to Trump's agenda. Given that Pierce's event raised more than $500, Adams' team under campaign finance law was required to either report Pierce as a so-called 'intermediary' or pay him for hosting the shindig. However, Adams' campaign didn't report Pierce as an intermediary and there is no record it paid Pierce for hosting, records show. A spokesman for the Campaign Finance Board declined to comment. Vito Pitta, Adams' campaign compliance attorney, didn't immediately return a request for comment. The revelations about Pool — who was reportedly spotted at the U.S. Capitol during the deadly pro-Trump Jan. 6, 2021 attack, though he denies participating in any violence — come as Adams is kickstarting his independent run for reelection amid various headwinds. Continuing to face political fallout from his indictment, Adams held a formal reelection campaign launch rally at City Hall Thursday, where he assailed the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, as unfit for office. Several of Adams' longtime supporters joined him at the event, including Sheikh Musa Drammeh, a Bronx community leader who called him the 'moral clarity mayor.' With Josephine Stratman
3 days ago
- Politics
New York City closes arrival center for migrants in once grand Manhattan hotel
NEW YORK -- New York City on Tuesday closed the arrival center for migrants it had established at the Roosevelt Hotel, a once-grand Manhattan hotel that had become an emblem of the city's fraught efforts to manage the flood of new migrants when it opened two years ago. The midtown hotel, located blocks from Grand Central Terminal, served as the first stop for tens of thousands of immigrants arriving in the city seeking free shelter and services, with migrant families lining up and sometimes even sleeping on the street outside the hotel waiting for a bed. Monday was the center's last full day in operation, and the hotel was vacant as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Mayor Eric Adams' office. Services provided at the Roosevelt, including registration, legal assistance and medical care, are now being offered to migrants at other shelter locations, the office said. Among the concerns with the hotel's closure is that some people with disabilities are being transferred to locations that don't adequately meet their needs, said David Giffen, head of the Coalition for the Homeless. 'Anytime the city is moving people between facilities it creates problems, and we're seeing those problems,' Giffen said. 'The ones that have the most needs are often the ones most forgotten.' Besides serving as the city's main migrant intake center, the Roosevelt also provided housing for migrant families with children. Adams' office, in response, said anyone staying at the Roosevelt who requested a disability accommodation was or has been assisted. The Democratic administration announced the city was winding down its operation at the Roosevelt and other migrant shelters in February as the surge of immigration from the U.S. southern border with Mexico waned. The city is currently housing more than 37,000 migrants across 170 sites, down from a peak of nearly 70,000 last January, officials said Tuesday. During the height of the migrant wave, New York saw an average of 4,000 arrivals a week. That is now down to less than 100 new migrants in the week that ended June 22, according to Adams' office. The number of new migrants has steadily dropped in large part because of stricter immigration measures imposed during the end of former President Joe Biden's administration as well as a broader immigration crackdown since President Donald Trump took office in January. The Adams administration also placed limits on how long migrants could remain in shelters run by the city, which is legally obligated to provide temporary housing to anyone who asks. More than 237,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in New York since April 2022, with more than 173,000 of them registered at the Roosevelt, city officials have said. In recent months, the hotel became a prime target for the Trump administration, which claimed the Roosevelt was a hotbed for gang activity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing those concerns, clawed back $80 million meant to reimburse the city for costs related to housing migrants. The future of the storied hotel, which the city had leased from its longtime owners, Pakistan's government-owned airline, remains unclear. Representatives for the property didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. The Roosevelt opened in 1924 and has more than 1,000 rooms. In its heyday, the hotel was known for its in-house band, which was led by jazz great Guy Lombardo. It also served as New York Gov. Thomas Dewey's election-night headquarters during his failed 1948 presidential campaign.
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Mayoral Race Features Cuomo, Mamdani and the Shadow of Trump
The following is an installment of the 'Letter from New York' column by Jacob Margolies, The Yomiuri Shimbun's General Counsel for America. Having practiced law for over three decades in New York, he explores a variety of topics — cultural, economic and political — in and around the Big Apple, and examines issues that the United States, Japan and the world at large are facing. New York City is electing a mayor this year, and on Tuesday, the Democratic Party's registered voters will be choosing their candidate for the general election race in November. Nearly two-thirds of voters in the city are Democrats, so it is very likely that the candidate who wins the Democratic primary will be the city's next mayor. Unaffiliated voters form the second largest bloc of voters in the city at 21%, and registered Republican Party voters are only 11%.Unlike some other major U.S. cities, the mayor of New York has strong executive powers. He (the city has never had a woman mayor) is in charge of the major city agencies, including the police and schools; prepares the city budget, including annual expenses and the capital plan; and has veto power over any law passed by the city's legislative body, which can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote by the City Council. The mayor appoints judges and has primary responsibility — subject to approval by other arms of government — for land use and zoning as well as city contracts. So, who the mayor is really matters. As with most aspects of American politics, U.S. President Donald Trump's influence looms over New York's mayoral election. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, is unpopular. In a March poll only 20% of voters approved of Adams' handling of his job. His popularity, which was already low, plummeted after he was indicted on bribery charges and violations of campaign finance law in September 2024. But after Trump took office, the United States Justice Department ordered prosecutors in its New York office to drop the case, citing concerns that a prosecution could interfere with Adams' ability to assist with immigration enforcement efforts. In April, a federal judge dismissed all the charges against Adams. Adams' attendance at Trump's inauguration and his attempts to curry favor with the president have been viewed with disdain by most New Yorkers. Trump won only 30% of the city's vote in the 2024 election, and four of Adams' deputy mayors submitted their resignations after the Trump Justice Department officially moved to dismiss the criminal charges against him. Seeing he had no chance to win in the primary, Adams has chosen not to seek renomination by the Democratic Party, but he says he intends to run on an independent line in the November general election. Two frontrunners The two leading candidates in the Democratic primary this month both have remarkable stories. The frontrunner is 67-year-old Andrew Cuomo, who served as the governor of New York State from 2011 until he resigned in disgrace in 2021 after a report by the New York attorney general found he had sexually harassed 11 women, many of whom worked under him. After the report was released, then President Joe Biden and other Democratic Party leaders called for Cuomo to resign, and he faced likely impeachment. It was a mighty fall for the three-term governor. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuomo held daily briefings that were televised and provided reassurances, advice and comforting words during the worst months of the crisis. His televised press conferences over 111 consecutive days were compared to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fireside chats during the Great Depression. For a few months, Cuomo was the most popular elected official in the United States. But in 2021, an official New York State report found that the Cuomo administration had understated the number of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes by 50%, and the governor was criticized for an order in the first days of the pandemic that forced nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive residents returning from hospitals if they were medically stable. Cuomo had issued the order because he feared a shortage of hospital beds during the first months of the pandemic, but the policy has been blamed for the high number of virus-related deaths among nursing home residents. According to press reports, the Trump Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether Cuomo lied to Congress when testifying publicly about COVID-19 related nursing home deaths. Despite the sexual harassment and nursing home scandals, Cuomo decided to run for mayor and, to the surprise of many, he has been the clear leader in the polls. The former governor is well-known and thought by many to be tough and decisive. Some supporters cite infrastructure projects that got built under his command. Cuomo is especially popular with Black voters (74% said they would vote for him in a recent poll). He is also strongly favored by older voters, some of whom fondly remember Cuomo's father, Mario Cuomo, who was New York's governor from 1983 through 1994. While Andrew Cuomo is a nationally known political figure, his leading opponent, according to polls, is a young newcomer who until a few months ago was unknown to most New Yorkers. Zohran Mamdani is 33 years old. He is a Muslim who was born in Uganda and moved to New York with his Indian parents at the age of 7. In 2020, he was elected to represent a district in Queens in the New York State Assembly. Mamdani is running as an avowed socialist, and while many of the other candidates in the race boast long resumes and decades of experience in government, it is Mamdani whose campaign has electrified younger voters. He has thousands of volunteers, and his exuberant videos on social media get millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Mamdani has focused on economic issues. He promises to make city buses free, freeze rent in the city's 1 million plus rent-regulated apartments, provide free childcare for New Yorkers aged six weeks to 5 years and establish low-cost government-run grocery stores in each of the city's five boroughs. In an extremely expensive city, where many residents struggle to pay their bills, Mamdani's appeal to pocketbook issues has struck a resounding chord. Exactly how all that Mamdani proposes would be paid for is unclear. While some may see his promises as merely aspirational, he presents his platform with a straight face. Of course, outlandish political promises aren't necessarily an impediment to political success in the United States. While on the campaign trail, Trump promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war 'within 24 hours of taking office' and pledged to cut people's energy bills by 50% in his first 12 months in office. There are 11 candidates on the Democratic primary ballot and voters are allowed to rank their top 5 choices in order of preference. If no candidate earns more than 50% of first-choice votes on election day, the city Board of Elections will tabulate a ranked-choice tally a week later, on July 1, where at the end of each round, the last-place candidate will be eliminated and voters who chose that candidate will have their vote counted for their next choice. This process will continue until two candidates are left and the one with the most votes will be declared the winner. A hostile president How the next mayor would deal with a president who is extremely hostile to the Democratic Party is an open question. The president grew up in the city. He still has an apartment on 5th Avenue in the Trump Tower, and his family business remains headquartered there. So, Trump still has a keen interest in the affairs of New York. He also holds a deep and enduring animus toward the city and state's leading elected officials. Manhattan's District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought a criminal case against Trump, that even many of the president's critics found dubious, resulting in a criminal conviction in May 2024 for falsifying business records. New York Attorney General Letitia James won a civil case against Trump and the Trump organization that resulted in a $454 million fine. Both of those cases are currently on appeal. In his first months in office, Trump has targeted New York institutions and state and local government policies. His Department of Education has attempted to remove $400 million in federal grants from Columbia, the city's leading university, and is now challenging the school's accreditation. Trump's Department of Transportation is seeking to end the city's successful congestion pricing program that has reduced traffic and carbon emissions and provided needed funding for mass transit. Trump has also issued executive orders targeting several major law firms in the city that would limit the firms' ability to represent clients in disputes with the federal government. And many international travelers upset at Trump's policies are changing their plans to visit New York. The city's official marketing organization last month cut its forecast for international tourists in 2025 by 17%, and the city is expected to host 800,000 fewer international travelers this year than in 2024. Perhaps the biggest challenge for the next mayor will be how to respond to Trump's promise to crackdown on undocumented immigrants in a city where over 400,000 city residents are living without legal authorization. The recent unrest over raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Los Angeles and elsewhere could be a precursor to similar trouble in New York. The city's mayor, whoever is elected, will be taking on what is always a difficult job with some unprecedented new challenges.
