New in PJ Media:
Imagine being Ken Griffin. (It’s easy if you try.) You give millions of dollars to worthy institutions in a major American city. You pay hundreds of thousands in city taxes. You employ thousands of city residents. And then last Wednesday, you hear that the city’s mayor has mentioned you specifically in a new video. You might assume that he was singling you out for special commendation in light of your generosity and civic mindedness. But the mayor in question is Comrade Zohran Mamdani and the city is New York, so you’d be wrong.
Ken Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a multinational financial services company and hedge fund. He lives primarily in Florida, and that’s how he ran afoul of Mamdani, who singles him out for special criticism in a nasty, mean-spirited video posted on April 15, Tax Day.
In that video, Mamdani announces a new plan to tax pied-à-terres that are valued at over $5 million. (A pied-à-terre is a dwelling that is not the owner’s primary residence.) He gleefully predicts that this new tax will bring in over $500 million, which he says will be used to pay for “free child care, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods.”
The villain of Mamdani’s piece is Griffin. In fact, the arrogant young Marxist filmed this video standing outside the building that he said housed Griffin’s pied-à-terre. Whether or not this was public information before the video appeared, Griffin has every reason to believe that Mamdani has put him in danger by revealing where he lives at least part of the time. In today’s overheated political environment, there is no shortage of crazed leftists who would be happy to take care of Mamdani’s little problem once and for all.
The thing is, however, that Ken Griffin is not really a problem for New York City. The Washington Free Beacon reported Saturday that Griffin, along with legendary music mogul David Geffen, made a “joint $400 million donation to Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2023. This constituted “the largest single donation the cancer center has ever received.” Griffin has also given “$40 million to the Museum of Modern Art, $40 million to the Museum of Natural History, and $15 million to the poverty-fighting Robin Hood Foundation.” The Free Beacon adds: “Sources tell us his gifts to city institutions total around $600 million.”
Then there is the fact that Griffin’s “Citadel and Citadel Securities together employ approximately 5,000 people,” and “is currently building Midtown’s tallest skyscraper right on Park Ave.”
This is, in other words, a guy whom Mamdani would be a fool, or a Communist intent on destroying New York City, to want to alienate. Mamdani says that the city is going to collect $500 million from his new pied-à-terre tax, but all that Griffin and everyone else is targets has to do to avoid it is sell the second place and find another one somewhere else.
There is more. Read the rest here.
WPM says
Yes a mayor who in his 34 years of living never held a real job ,never ran as business ,whose only job ever before being elected to his job of representing an area in Queens in Albany was working for his mother making cringe rap videos. Now that he is elected as mayor in NYC goes after rich democratic backers that could set up shop taking their donations ,support to the party ,and jobs to any of hundreds of blue cities in America because in the name of communist class warfare you Mr. mayor drama kid attack them publicly ? How does he think this will go cannibalizing their reputation ,some of the biggest donators to democratic causes and doxing them on top of that ? Does he think his mother the film maker or his father the communist college professor will protect him from the blow back these democratic big money backers can put on him?
Troybeam says
This is a law suit in the making & it will prolong for years. Mamdani is simply hunting ways to line pockets of elected officials. The really rich in New York are leaving and or have left and soon many more will follow. Even the Hollywood idiots who live there will leave because hey they pay taxes and complain when their tax is higher even after they pay income tax & with Mamdani’s wealth tax added on their accounts will drain more rapid then they like especially without work due to AI making “movie stars” fake people with the businesses who created them get rich quick, what’s that company’s electric bill? Oh yea the people are paying that bill because of the deals they make.
New York: reap what you have sown.
Thomas Black says
The article makes the same logical argument as countless others. And not just about NYC. It is that the class warfare being waged by the Marxist Mamdani and fellow travelers drives out high-worth individuals and businesses that jurisdictions can ill-afford to lose.
But perhaps their plan is to sow local disorder by eroding the local tax base, while reminding everyone that voters elected the hard-leftists. Their solution? A massive leftward shift at the federal level. People may “escape from New York” to Florida or Texas. But are they going to move out of the country?
Huh?!? says
I pray that this mess in NYC will wake up the rest of the U.S. to the stupidity of socialism, communism, Islam. I found the comment by big democrat money donors pushing back on this interesting. What is going to happen to Mamdani when that happens? NYC could have avoided this by not voting for it. Now NYC must learn the hard way. I pray the rest of the country does not have to do so.
Billy says
Unlike his Leftist Democrats, Mamdani is Islamizing NYC day by day with Muslim discrimination, segregation, violence, and terrorism where Muslims become more and more dominant and prominant in every aspect of the city under Islamic Law. Allah in Qur’an 48:29 says, “Muhammad is Allah’s messenger, and those who are with him are severe against the infidels[Non-Muslims] but full of tenderness among themselves[Muslims].”
Allah in Qur’an 5:51 says, “O you who have believed[Muslims], DO NOT TAKE the Jews and the Nasara(Christians) as friends. They are friends to one another. And whoever among you takes them as friends, so surely he is of them. Surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”
Westman says
Mr. Ken Griffin could simply gift the penthouse to the city and never contribute another dime to NYC. The empty penthouse, under the management of Mamdani’s cronies, would likely remain empty while other one-tenth percenters avoided it, yet, it would still require ciity resources for its upkeep.
It seems like Mamdani is donning his surgical gown as the City’s Golden Egg abortionist. The Golden Geese won’t forget. How does the, “Houston Stock Exchange”, or the, “Plam Beach Stock Exchange”, sound?
Thomas Black says
The Texas Stock Exchange is headquartered in Dallas and scheduled to launch in July 2026.
somehistory says
I saw a headline about a federal suit against the dam ani if he tries to tax White people more than others.
In Florida, (unless it has changed over the years and I didn’t notice) there is what is called a “homesteaders law.” If you own a home there and spend the day and night of Jan. 1, you get a tax break.
since the greedy muzzie made promises he knew he couldn’t keep in order to get elected, he is trying every trick to get the money needed to keep the angry wolves from his mansion door
This wicked behavior on his part is kind of like cutting off his nose to spite his face; not exactly the same, but maybe closer to killing the geese who have kept the city going up until now.
The greedy muzzie is failing…as many knew he would….and now more people are realizing just what a con artist he is.
skeptiker says
MAMDANI = ANIMALS FARM.