President Trump is famous for his love of everything gold and other trappings that connote royalty, whether it be large military parades or extravagant inaugural balls.
But in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr. Trump went a step further, likening himself to a king as he celebrated his administration’s move to kill New York City’s congestion pricing program.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” he wrote. “LONG LIVE THE KING!”
The White House then reinforced the message, recirculating it on Instagram and X with an illustration of Mr. Trump wearing a crown on a magazine cover resembling Time, but called Trump.
Mr. Trump has been vocal in his opposition to congestion pricing, which charges most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, saying it was harmful to the city’s economy. He vowed during the election to halt it when he entered office. In an interview with The New York Post earlier this month, he characterized the toll as being “destructive” to New York.
“If I decide to do it, I will be able to kill it off in Washington through the Department of Transportation,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.
On Wednesday, the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, made good on the president’s wishes. He laid out Mr. Trump’s objections to the program in a letter sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul and said that federal officials would contact the state to “discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations.”
“I share the president’s concerns about the impacts to working-class Americans who now have an additional financial burden to account for in their daily lives,” Mr. Duffy wrote.
Mr. Trump’s first month back in the White House has been full of moments where he has invoked almost monarchical power. In his Inaugural Address, he said God had saved him when a would-be assassin made an attempt on his life in order “to make America great again.”
He has liberally dispensed executive orders. And, most significantly, he has claimed that any efforts on his part do “not violate any law” if done in service of saving the country.
An avalanche of lawsuits have been filed to contest many of the executive actions.
Ms. Hochul explicitly pushed back on Mr. Trump’s presentation of himself as a monarch in her statement about the revoking of congestion pricing. In recent weeks, she spoke with him multiple times to try to convince him of the program’s benefits only to see the plug pulled.
“We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” Ms. Hochul said. “The M.T.A. has initiated legal proceedings in the Southern District of New York to preserve this critical program. We’ll see you in court.”