Trump Loses Again In His Fight To End New York Congestion Pricing

A court judge once again ruled against the Trump
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Donald Trump lost yet another battle in his fight against New York City's congestion pricing.  

Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to New York authorities last February demanding the city stop charging tolls to motorists driving into Manhattan. Previous rulings allowed the practice to continue while the courts deliberated. 

On Tuesday, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman said Duffy had no authority to revoke federal approval for the program.  Congestion pricing can continue. 

Congestion pricing started up in January, 2025. Drivers pay a $9 daytime base fee if they enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. The money uses the revenue to pay for mass transit improvements. New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has collected $562 million from the fees in 2025. 

The congestion pricing is mainly designed to reduce congestion in Manhattan and pay for costs and upgrades to public transit. It also has a climate change component, which is why I'm mentioning it in this here blog thingy. 

The theory is that fewer cars means less carbon going up into the atmosphere.  That would ever so slightly blunt New York's contribution to climate change. Every little bit helps, right? The theory is that fewer cars means less carbon going up into the atmosphere.  That would ever so slightly blunt New York's contribution to climate change. Every little bit helps, right?

Trump is strangely fixated on Manhattan's congestion pricing. You'd think he would be bigger fish to fry. 

First off, as New Republic notes, this is was an effort by Trump to please his MAGA base and maintain the fiction where they mentally live. As New Republic notes:

"Trump knows he has many fans among conservative suburbanites who love car culture and - with equal passion - hate an fear the subway, seeing it as a symbol of the chaos and danger in urban live, devouring every scary subway story and raging at the idea that their driving should fund this cesspool of crime. It is a culture war, for sure, a not a particularly new one the provincial and cosmopolitan strains of American lie have always been at odds?."

But worse for Trump,  the congestion pricing battle was a test of his authoritarian aims. It was a test, to make an example out of New York and its governor Kathy Hochul, who kept supporting the congestion pricing. 

As New Republic concluded, to Trump the King must not be defied. 

In this case, he was. By Hochul and he judge, and others. This means other city mayors and state governors might not be so ready to be cowed by Trump after this. 

New York's congestion pricing seems to be working. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority collected $562 million in fees from congestion pricing in 2025. 

By one estimation, congestion pricing reduced traffic flow by 7.5 percent on certain bridges and tunnels and on FDR and West Side highways

And, although correlation isn't causation, retail sales in lower Manhattan were $900 million higher this January compared to last, a restaurant reservations were up 7 percent. 

Congestion pricing is by no means universally loved. When it started there was a ton of backlash, especially among commuters from New Jersey. 

Advocates of congestion pricing have won this battle, but this thing is far from over. The Trump administration has vowed to appeal the court ruling.