{"id":200130,"date":"2026-04-17T00:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200130\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:06:08","slug":"epa-administrator-lee-zeldin-weighs-in-on-new-york-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200130\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin weighs in on New York politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s top official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, is weighing in\u00a0\u2014 as much as he says he can\u00a0\u2014 on New York politics in an exclusive interview with NY1.<\/p>\n

The former 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate cautioned New York lawmakers from backing tax hikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really needs to be a deterrent for anyone who\u2019s in elected office in New York who has any desire whatsoever to stop the out-migration. If you want to stop the out-migration, you can\u2019t be raising costs, you need to be lowering them,\u201d Zeldin said.<\/p>\n

Zeldin said in his current role as EPA\u2019s administrator, he\u2019s worked in many states where he\u2019s interacted with former Big Apple residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen so many New Yorkers elsewhere, and they\u2019re not coming back every single day. Those ranks grow. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, these New Yorkers are gone. Businesses gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s top official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, is weighing in\u00a0\u2014 as much as he says he can\u00a0\u2014 on New York politics in an exclusive interview with NY1
\n
The former 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate cautioned New York lawmakers from backing tax hikes
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Zeldin said the political dynamics of the New York gubernatorial race are different
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He’s also reportedly in the running to become Trump\u2019s next United States Attorney General<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Zeldin\u2019s former opponent, has also previously said that taxing the wealthy and large corporations could contribute to more people leaving New York, and promised last fall that she wouldn\u2019t raise taxes \u2014 but she also recently revealed a plan to tax non-primary residents\u2019 second homes<\/a> valued at $5 million or more.<\/p>\n

Zeldin said the political dynamics of the New York gubernatorial race are different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ran, there was a mayor in New York City, Eric Adams, you have a different dynamic now. Now, the issues change as you go from one race to the next,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zeldin claimed he can\u2019t opine on Republican gubernatorial candidate and fellow Long Island resident Bruce Blakeman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as handicapping and personal preferences, my editorializing on the race, I would have to come back as private citizen Lee Zeldin to share those thoughts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The reason is because of ethical restrictions outlined in the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity or interfering in an election – even in a personal capacity, according to the EPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that over the course of the last four years, you saw voter enrollment trending towards Republicans, more Republicans, more conservatives, more independents, less Democrats,\u201d Zeldin said.<\/p>\n

But the GOP is on the brink of losing majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Blakeman trails Hochul by 13 points, according to a recent poll.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump is backing Blakeman, reiterating that support on social media this week.<\/p>\n

The state Democratic Party slammed the candidacy, saying in a statement, \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s toxic agenda is deeply unpopular with New Yorkers\u2026 New York Democrats will win up and down the ballot this November, defeat Blakeman, and take back the House to hold Trump and his enablers in D.C. accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Trump has a surprising relationship with Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Mayor Mamdani shows up to that first meeting and he wants to actually work with the president, I think they\u2019re gonna have a great meeting. That was my prediction,\u201d Zeldin said. \u201cNow, if Mayor Mamdani showed up in that meeting and he didn\u2019t want to work with the president \u2014 instead, he wanted to grandstand and drop bombs and have conflict and friction \u2014 well, then that would have been very different. But I know how much the president loves New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeldin is also reportedly in the running to become Trump\u2019s next United States Attorney General.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what I\u2019m doing right now, and that\u2019s where my focus is. That\u2019s where it\u2019s been. We all serve at the pleasure of the president. The American public put President Trump in office to assemble the best people who he can think of for all these key roles. And I\u2019m honored to do my job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump\u2019s top official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, is weighing in\u00a0\u2014 as much as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,116,25,8889,9,24,55,54,49,12,56,112,108,87,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-200130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-bernadette-hogan","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-new-york-state","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","20":"tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}