In Congestion Pricing Reversal, Hochul Finds Odd Allies, Including Trump

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday that she would indefinitely halt New York’s congestion pricing plan, a last-minute move that infuriated the plan’s supporters and put her in league with unlikely allies, including former President Donald J. Trump.

The tolling program, which had been set to go into effect on June 30, was designed to reduce traffic and pollution and create $1 billion a year in revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by charging drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

“I can’t believe that New York City is instituting Congestion Pricing, where everyone has to pay a fortune for the ‘privilege’ of coming into the City, which is in desperate trouble without it,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, on May 7. “It is a big incentive not to come — there are plenty of other places to go.”

For any other presumptive nominee for president, it would be an unusual fixation on a local issue.

But for Mr. Trump, whose post was published while he was in town for his criminal trial, which ended last week with his conviction on 34 felony charges, it was just another swipe at the city that made him — and that he has a habit of attacking. Trump Tower in Manhattan also happens to sit squarely within the area targeted by the tolling program.

Mr. Trump’s statement about congestion pricing came as he insisted his campaign was making a play for New York, a state no Republican presidential candidate has won in decades.

His comments aligned him with Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, both Democrats and staunch Trump opponents who have also been vocal critics of the city’s congestion pricing plan.