Gov. Kathy Hochul says she has a strategy for keeping President Trump from surging federal troops and agents into New York City: convince him it will be bad for business.<\/p>\n
The Democratic governor, who has generally had a productive working relationship<\/a> with the president, said she is enlisting executives to help drive home her new message.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an evolution from her last tactic. Over the summer, Hochul leaned on falling crime rates to keep Trump from deploying troops in New York as he had in Chicago and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s endorsement of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani \u2014 and his subsequent election \u2014 has complicated things. Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from the city and denounces Mamdani as a communist, which he is not.<\/p>\n Hochul told reporters on Monday that she\u2019s tweaked her message.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve had conversations with a lot of business leaders saying, \u2018When the time comes, make sure that you also convey your concerns about what this would do to destabilize New York City and the outsize impact that this would have across America,\u2019\u201d Hochul recalled. \u201cIt would have an effect that other cities do not have because we are the financial center. And you cannot disturb that without consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Agents from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement are keeping a lower profile than they have in some other cities. In Chicago, agents rappelled from helicopters.<\/a> This weekend ICE agents conducted sweeps in Charlotte<\/a> outside of churches and grocery stores.<\/p>\n Kathryn Wylde, who leads the Partnership for New York City business group, said she agrees with Hochul.<\/p>\n \u201cPolitical instability, social unrest that would result from sending in the National Guard would be negative for our economy,\u201d Wylde said. \u201cIt will change the dynamic in New York in a negative way, and that\u2019s the last thing we need right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Hochul told reporters she has had “tabletop” exercises for several months including members of her administration and the NYPD, playing out their response to hypothetical situations. Mamdani and outgoing Mayor Eric Adams have been part of the strategy sessions as well, Hochul said.<\/p>\n Mamdani said this weekend that he would work with the president on reducing the cost of living, but that there would be a \u201cunified front\u201d including himself and Hochul to any National Guard deployment. Mamdani said sending troops is \u201cnot an attack on an individual politician like myself. It’s an attack on the city.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWorking together, using the courts, not backing down from your values and the clarity of your convictions. That’s what we need to see in the city. That’s what we’ll deliver,\u201d Mamdani said in an interview with ABC7NY\u2019s Bill Ritter.<\/a><\/p>\n