After another round of budget discussions being postponed by both the state and city councils in New York, Mayor Mamdani and City Council Speaker Manning stood together on Tuesday (April 28th) to pressure Governor Hochu, urging him to once again “cut into the wealthy.” Meanwhile, Ken Griffin, who is attending a meeting in Europe, remotely criticized Mayor Mamdani’s tax policy targeting the wealthy and revealed plans to meet with the governor later this week.
According to Bloomberg, Citadel Investment Group CEO Griffin expressed his anger at Mamdani during a panel discussion in Norway on Tuesday, stating that Mamdani deliberately targeted his property when pushing for a new tax on New Yorkers’ second high-priced housing, showing Mamdani’s “extreme lack of judgment.” Griffin said, “What angers me is this personal attack.”
On the 15th of this month, Mayor Mamdani filmed a video in front of Griffin’s $238 million penthouse in Manhattan, celebrating the governor’s second property tax policy; however, this video faced criticism from billionaire property owners. A few days later, senior officials at Citadel indicated that they might abandon their large-scale expansion plans in New York City. The financial giant is developing a 62-story building on Park Avenue, with internal emails stating, “If we move forward with this project, we are talking about over $6 billion in expenditures.”
“The real question is: Will New York City clean up its finances and establish a strong government that supports business?” Griffin said at the 2026 Investing Management Conference in Oslo, “Why do Americans think we can implement socialism? There is no socialism gene in our DNA.”
Griffin is scheduled to meet with the Governor of New York this week to discuss the future development direction of New York City, the largest city in the United States.
Mamdani later clarified that his push for the new second-housing tax was not “motivated by any personal motives” and referred to Griffin as an “important employer and business leader” in New York City. At an event at the New York City Police Department on Tuesday, Mamdani also thanked Griffin.
The mayor attended the annual ceremony at the police department, where the names of officers who died in the line of duty will be added to the Hall of Heroes at the NYPD headquarters. During his speech, he briefly thanked Citadel’s CEO.
“I want to thank everyone who has come to the Hall of Heroes today, especially Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and the leadership of the NYPD,” Mamdani said. “I also want to thank Ken Griffin for funding the construction of the memorial wall, which will be open later this year.”