‘The bear’s been poked’: Hochul offers sharp rebuke of Trump

After decreeing the death of congestion pricing, President Donald Trump declared “long live the king” on social media. Speaking later the same day, Gov. Kathy Hochul alluded to the Revolutionary War, pointedly reminding reporters that New York has taken on a king before – and won.

Within hours of receiving a letter from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stating that the Federal Highway Administration was rescinding its approval for congestion pricing, Hochul offered her strongest rhetorical rebuke of Trump since he returned to the White House. “I don't care if you love congestion pricing or hate it,” Hochul said. “This is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington.” She attacked Trump’s evocation of kingship, noting that New York hasn’t been under royal rule for 250 years. “This is what we fought for – people like Alexander Hamilton and others fought for – to set up a system (where) we are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington,” Hochul said.

Until now, the governor has largely toed the line, refraining from overt attacks on the president and avoiding the #Resistance-type rhetoric that some other blue state governors have used. Instead, the governor has repeatedly said that she prefers to find common ground with the Republican president to benefit New York state, and she has remained in communication with him. While she hasn’t exactly been deferential, she has tried to avoid poking the bear. 

No longer.

“The bear’s been poked,” Hochul said on Wednesday when asked whether she will take a different approach to Trump moving forward. The governor made sure to say that she is not “leading the resistance” and her focus is still on governing New York. But the Trump administration has now thrown down the gauntlet. “Someone draws first blood, you respond,” Hochul said, invoking Sylvester Stallone’s movie tough-guy Rambo. “I didn’t draw first blood. There’s a response that’s required when someone comes after you – someone just came after my state.”

Hochul said she is still willing to talk with Trump and try to find common ground. But she said that this time, the president crossed a line. “You went too far because you came after New Yorkers,” she said.

The new move from the Trump administration comes just one week after the U.S. Department of Justice sued New York (and Hochul herself) over a state law that permits undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses and shields DMV data from immigration officials. At the time, Hochul cancelled a meeting with the president that was scheduled for the next day and released a fairly strong statement taking aim at the lawsuit, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and billionaire Elon Musk. But her statement conspicuously did not mention Trump himself.

On Wednesday, Hochul used more colorful language to describe her conversation with Trump after the lawsuit was made public. “I called up the president and said, ‘I'm not coming down tomorrow,’” she said. “‘I don't know what your plan is. Are you going to slap handcuffs on my goddamn hands?’” Hochul next plans to meet with Trump when she is in Washington later this week for the National Governors Association winter meeting.

Hochul even made use of a prop during the Wednesday press conference, holding up a mock cover of Time magazine featuring Trump in a crown and the word “TRUMP” at the top. “Next time you're stuck in traffic, the next time your train is delayed, the next time you're in a flooded station because infrastructure carries are not made – I want you to think of this,” she said, pointing to the fake magazine cover. And Hochul offered a final message of defiance against the Trump administration’s order to shut down congestion pricing program’s license plate readers: “The cameras stay on.”