Mayor Zohran Mamdani said 1,400 New Yorkers signed up to join the city’s emergency snow-shoveling program on Tuesday alone, thanking President Donald Trump and Republicans for making it a popular talking point at the State of the Union address.
“I can tell you, I didn’t expect this much attention nationwide on our emergency snow shoveler program,” Mamdani said on Wednesday in response to Trump’s remarks. “It is a program that has existed for years. It is a program that has been part of responses to storms.”
He said the conversation has been helpful in sharing the fact that New Yorkers can be a part of this program.
“I mean yesterday, we saw more than 1,000 New Yorkers enroll into this program, and that, in and of itself, doubles the size of the snow shoveling program that we first found when coming into office,” Mamdani said.
Trump brought up city’s shoveling program during the State of the Union, noting it requires “two forms of ID” from temporary snow shovelers.
The president drew comparisons to the identification required to shovel snow in Mamdani’s New York City to legislation that he supports requiring require people to furnish photo identification in order to vote in national elections.
Mamdani has noted that the city government requires short-term snow shovelers to provide two forms of ID because federal law requires it.
Trump also called Mamdani “a nice guy” with “bad policy.”
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