Donald Trump's list of titles includes reality television star, WWE Hall of Famer and two-time president of the United States, but that doesn't mean he's satisfied. The commander-in-chief gave himself one more honorific while gloating over the potential end of New York City's congestion pricing: king.
Trump crowned himself in a celebratory post to Truth Social, in which the outer-borough-born mogul prematurely announced that tolls for traveling by car into the busiest parts of Manhattan were dead.
"CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED," he wrote. "LONG LIVE THE KING!"
That announcement was also posted by the official White House account on X, adding an image of the president in front of the New York skyline with a crown on his head.
The post follows similarly concerning statements from Trump earlier this week, in which the president seemingly declared himself above the law.
The crowing came after Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy sent a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, announcing that an agreement allowing the tolls between the state and the Federal Highway Administration had been rescinded. Duffy called congestion pricing "a slap in the face to working-class Americans" and "backwards."
"Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways," he wrote. "Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn't be reserved for an elite few."
Hochul initially shared a message stating simply that the toll cameras were "staying on." In a subsequent press release and press conference, the governor rejected Trump calling himself a king and said that the Trump administration was attacking the state's sovereignty.
"New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years and we sure as hell are not going to start now," Hochul said. "We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington."
New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority — the agency responsible for public transit in the city — immediately sued the Trump administration over their attempt to kill congestion pricing. At a press conference on Wednesday, MTA head Janno Lieber defended the program.
"We tried gridlock for 60 years. It didn't work," he said. "It cost our economy billions. But you know what's helping our economy? What's making New York a better place? Congestion pricing."
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