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IT’S (D)IFFERENT: NBC Discovers Strange New Respect for Federalism
The temporary injunction in federal court against Trump Administration efforts to stop New York City’s controversial congestion pricing scheme drew cheerful coverage on NBC Nightly News. It appears that, after a four-year hiatus, the network has rediscovered federalism.
Watch the report in its entirety as aired on the NBC Nightly News on Tuesday, May 27th, 2025:
IT'S (D)IFFERENT: NBC Discovers Strange New Respect for Federalism pic.twitter.com/pJlXVey09s
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 28, 2025
LESTER HOLT: We are back now with the battle between the Trump Administration and New York City over a program to reduce traffic. The president says he wants to kill that program. But today, a federal judge temporarily blocked that effort. With more, here is Sam Brock.
SAM BROCK: New York City's congestion pricing will remain in drive at least another couple weeks after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump Administration, preventing the president from punishing New York for not slamming the brakes on the program, which charges most drivers $9 to visit the busiest parts of Manhattan.
DRIVER: The traffic has improved a little bit but the pricing is ridiculous.
DRIVER: There’s less traffic.
BROCK: You’ve noticed a big difference?
DRIVER: Oh yeah. Big difference.
BROCK: The federal government threatening to cut off some transportation funding if the city doesn't end the program.
JANNO LIEBER: One of the things that a lot of people have been put off by is the idea that the federal government is going to step in and tell New York City how to deal with its traffic problem.
BROCK: President Trump calling out congestion pricing in his early days in office, including this post from February, wearing a crown and declaring “congestion pricing is dead.”
DONALD TRUMP: They are taking many, many dollars out of your pocket.
BROCK: But as the legal gridlock continues, the city’s transportation authority says the early returns are stellar for the first plan of its kind in the country. The MTA says in April alone, 2.3 million fewer cars entered the congestion zone than would have if the plan wasn't in place. In the first 3 months of the year, a whopping 8.1 million fewer drove through the area.
BRAD LANDER: Car crashes are down. Bus ridership is up. Subway ridership is up.
BROCK: One New York congressman summed it up as less about the location of the tolls and more about the federal government getting involved in what is typically city and state traffic plans, and the precedent that might set. Lester.
HOLT: All right. Sam Brock in New York. Thank you.
Left out of NBC’s report is that the injunction was not issued on the merits of the case, and will certainly be back before the court. Per Fox News:
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from getting rid of the program and withholding federal funding if the city failed to nix the program.
Liman’s Tuesday restraining order keeps the tolls in place through at least June 9 and prevents Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy from retaliating against the city.
Compare this report, casting the City of New York as noble victims of Trump’s heavy hand, with countless reports during the preceding four years castigating red states for resisting the Biden administration on any number of issues, from vaccines to guns to abortion. Remember “Don’t Say Gay?”
The media took personal offense any time a red state defied the Biden administration’s policies. Florida, in particular, drew media scorn for having the temerity to ban the sexualization of little kids via public school curriculum.
But Trump against congestion pricing in New York City? That’s just (D)ifferent.
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