New York, New York - New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani jointly condemned President Donald Trump for withholding funds meant for counterterrorism measures.
Less than a fortnight before the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Hochul accused Trump and the Department of Homeland Security of behaving in a "reckless and dangerous" manner on counterterrorism funding.
Washington last year cut $187 million in law enforcement funding, triggering widespread outrage. Responding to the backlash, Trump reversed the cuts and pointed blame at the DHS.
Since the incident, however, only $100 million of the Homeland Security Grant Program funding has been released. $87 million – roughly 40% – has been withheld.
"Let me translate that in real simple terms: Donald Trump is defunding the police," Hochul declared alongside Mamdani outside her office in Midtown Manhattan.
"If you don't release the counterterrorism funding, you're betraying every family that lost someone on 9/11," she said.
In a statement provided to the New York Times by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Trump administration accused New York of failing to spend the $300 million it already has in DHS funding.
FEMA said that Hochul was "manufacturing a funding crisis," declaring: "They traditionally received allocations significantly ABOVE risk-based formulas."
Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman pushed back, claiming that 99% of New York's grant money was spent on time and reiterating that "New York is the [Number One] terrorist target in the nation."
"We are talking about the money needed to fully fund 12 bomb squads across New York," Mamdani said on Tuesday.
"We are talking about the money needed to ensure that, in the event of a catastrophic attack, the FDNY can communicate internally and respond effectively," he said.
"To put it simply, there is no excuse for the federal government to leave the nation's largest city to shoulder this burden alone."