Former Gov. George Pataki praised President Trump for transferring to kill congestion pricing — and stated New York wants its personal cost-slashing model of DOGE.
Pataki, a Republican, stated Gov. Kathy Hochul “wanted the money” from the $9 toll to enter Manhattan to fund the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“New York State gets enough money — too much money — from the taxpayers,” Pataki stated on WABC 770s AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
“They don’t need more,” Pataki stated. “New York is too expensive. The government costs too much. We could use a little DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] in Albany and City Hall instead of raising taxes.”
He famous that the MTA is asking for billions extra in capital funding from Albany — properly past the revenues generated from the congestion toll.
“It never ends,” Pataki stated of the proposed $65 billion, five-year plan. “It’s unsustainable.”
The MTA has sued to dam the Trump administration from rescinding the toll and congestion pricing stays in impact in the meanwhile.
Though New York’s final Republican governor had reward for Trump, he stated he was baffled by the commander-in-chief’s dealing with of the negotiations to finish Russia’s brutal struggle towards Ukraine.
Pataki stated Trump gave the impression to be more durable on Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky than on Russia and its chief Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine three years in the past, on Feb. 24, 2022.
Pataki has visited Ukraine quite a few instances as a part of aid efforts by way of his charitable group.
“President Trump‘s positioning on Ukraine so far has been completely wrong,” Pataki instructed host John Catsimatidis.
He likened it to how former President Joe Biden dealt with the Hamas-Israel battle, placing an excessive amount of strain on Israel as an alternative of Hamas.
“Sadly, I think, Trump is making the same mistake that Biden made with Israel in the case of Ukraine,” the previous three-term governor stated. “As a substitute of placing all of the strain on Putin — who’s clearly the dangerous man, a horrible human being — he’s placing the strain on Ukraine.
“I don’t think anyone wants the war to end sooner than the Ukrainian people,” he went on. “But the way to do it is not to pressure Ukraine. It’s to pressure Putin and Russia, because they’re the ones that are wrong. They’re the ones who have acted like barbarians … And they’re the ones who should be under the pressure to reach a reasonable peace.”
Pataki known as Putin a “killer who is anti-American, anti-Western, anti-civilization.”
The Put up reached out to the White Home for remark.
Washington and Kyiv engaged in a tense trade of barbs over the previous week.
Trump, who’s making an attempt to carry the preventing to a detailed on phrases that Kyiv at one level stated had been too favorable to Moscow, lashed out at Zelensky, writing on Reality Social on Feb. 19 that the Ukrainian chief was a “dictator without elections.”
“In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,” he wrote in a prolonged Reality Social rant, referencing Ukraine suspending elections final yr because of the struggle — as dictated in Ukrainian legislation.
“Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues.”
The Put up reported Friday that tensions cooled between Washington and Kiev.
The Trump administration is alleged to be near a take care of Ukraine for entry to lots of of billions of {dollars} price of mineral rights in an enormous step towards ending Russia’s grinding struggle on the European nation.
