Trump Admin May Be Quietly Plotting To Blow Up Mamdani Campaign Cornerstone

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on a promise to “permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus.”

Mamdani’s chances of keeping that promise are looking more and more unlikely, thanks in part to a new proposal from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The department “wants to stop large cities that receive federal funds from providing free bus transit,” Politico reported Tuesday, citing a USDOT proposal which will reportedly be included in an upcoming surface transportation bill. The proposal would apply to transportation agencies in areas with large populations (over 200,000) and a large fleet of buses (more than 100). That puts New York City squarely in the proposal’s crosshairs.