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CYPRESS, TEXAS – OCTOBER 21: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a Get out the Vote event at Cypress Trail Hideout in Cypress on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
TEXAS – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ignited a political firestorm ahead of New York City’s mayoral election, vowing Monday to impose a 100 percent tariff on anyone moving to Texas from the city after the polls closed on Nov. 4, despite the power to levy tariffs resting solely with the federal government.
Abbott made the announcement before New Yorkers went to the polls to choose between socialist Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. After the polls closed, the governor again took to X to post a request for a “moment of silence for NYC.”
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President Donald Trump on Mamdani
The Texas governor’s threat mirrored similar posturing from President Donald Trump, who also weighed in on the race by promising to halt most federal funding to New York should Mamdani win.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump argued that the city “can only get worse with a communist at the helm.”
“It is my obligation to run the nation, and it is my strong conviction that New York City will be a complete and total economic and social disaster should Mamdani win,” Trump wrote, adding that Mamdani, a former state assemblyman, was “nothing as an assemblyman.”
Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, during an election night event at The Brooklyn Paramount Theater in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
What we know:
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist, ultimately prevailed in the mayoral race, capping a rapid rise for the Uganda-born, Queens-raised political powerhouse. Mamdani ran on a progressive platform centered on housing affordability, fare-free public transit, and universal childcare, garnering endorsements from national figures including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
When he takes office Jan. 1, Mamdani will make history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor, first person of South Asian heritage, first born in Africa, and the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century.
The Source: Information in this article is from Fox News, Greg Abbott’s posts on X, and President Donald Trump’s posts on Truth Social.