On February 19, 78-year-old Donald Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to announce:<\/p>\n
\u201cCONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!\u201d<\/p>\n
His comment followed the Trump administration\u2019s move to halt the controversial New York City congestion pricing plan, which would have charged drivers entering certain areas of the city.<\/p>\n
The White House argued that the federal government has jurisdiction over the roads leading to New York and that the proposed toll would unfairly burden working-class residents in the region, as reported by the BBC.<\/p>\n
The official White House X account reshared Trump\u2019s statement, paired with an illustrated image in the style of a TIME Magazine cover.<\/p>\n
The image depicted Trump wearing a crown, with the words \u201cLONG LIVE THE KING\u201d prominently placed in the bottom left corner.<\/p>\n
Critics quickly took to X to voice their opinions. One user questioned: \u201cIsn\u2019t the whole point of America even existing to not have a monarch?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another remarked, \u201cI thought we lived in a Democracy, not a Monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third comment referenced the American Revolution, stating, \u201cWe literally fought a revolution to NOT have a king.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illinois\u2019 Democratic Governor JB Pritzker also weighed in, writing, \u201cAs Governor of Illinois, my oath is to the Constitution of our state and our nation. We don\u2019t have kings in America, and I won\u2019t bend the knee to one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the backlash, many Trump supporters expressed enthusiasm for the post.<\/p>\n
One commenter wrote, \u201cHe looks good in a crown, definitely should get one,\u201d while another said,<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks like someone\u2019s feeling royal today! The crown emoji is practically mandatory right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third supporter proudly declared, \u201cI VOTED FOR THIS!\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s statement also touched on the toll program\u2019s impact on drivers, saying, \u201cCommuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes.<\/p>\n
The toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It\u2019s backwards and unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, New York Governor Kathy Hochul firmly rejected the idea, stating, \u201cWe haven\u2019t labored under a King in over 250 years, and we sure as hell are not going to start now.<\/p>\n
New Yorkers are going to fight. We do not back down, not now, not ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York officials have vowed to continue advocating for the proposed $9 toll, which would apply to all vehicles entering Manhattan between 60th Street and the Financial District.<\/p>\n
The toll would be in effect from 5 am to 9 pm on weekdays and 9 am to 9 pm on weekends.<\/p>\n
Transportation officials argue that the program would not only help improve traffic but also enable first responders to reach emergencies more efficiently.<\/p>\n
The funds raised from the tolls would be used to revitalize the city\u2019s subway system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On February 19, 78-year-old Donald Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to announce: \u201cCONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!\u201d His comment followed the Trump administration\u2019s move to halt the controversial New York City congestion pricing plan, which would have charged drivers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-daily-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6498,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions\/6498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsintime.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}