After President Donald Trump threatened to seize federal control of New York City if mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani is elected this fall, Fordham Law Professor Aaron Saiger clarifies in this Newsday article the powers—and limits—should Trump intervene.
It’s unclear the extent to which courts would restrict Trump’s authority to broaden his power over the city, said Aaron Saiger, a professor at Fordham law school and director of its Urban Law Center.
“The president does not have authority to do many of these things, and I expect them to stop him,” Saiger said of the courts, but he’s not 100% confident they will.
It’s not even clear what Trump means by taking over the city, Saiger said.
“We don’t know what the president can do until he tries it, because he has been perhaps the most aggressive expander of presidential power in my lifetime certainly, and his approach is to exert power and see if anyone can stop him,” he said.
And, he said, a presidential administration has “many, many levers by which to induce the government of the City of New York to conform to its wishes, and if all of them were to be used, it would be difficult indeed to resist.”
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A federal takeover could end the home rule that has afforded D.C. a measure of self-governance since 1973, but is still substantially bound to Congress’ whims, including Congress approving the district’s budget.
Unlike D.C., which is a federal district, New York is a sovereign state with vastly more independence.
Said Saiger, the Fordham professor: “D.C.’s entirely different.”
Read “Can Donald Trump really take over New York City?” in Newsday.