Every few years, some progressive city council or newly minted mayor decides to run the same doomed experiment. Target the wealthy. Propose confiscatory new taxes. Dress it up in the rhetoric of “fairness” and “equity.” Then — and this part never gets old — act genuinely bewildered when the people footing the bill decide they’d rather not. It’s not a bold new vision. It’s economic self-sabotage with better branding.
Here’s what these ideologues never seem to grasp: wealthy job creators aren’t hostages. They have planes, lawyers, and standing invitations from governors in Florida and Texas. The people who actually get trapped when the tax base evaporates? The construction workers. The restaurant owners. The small business operators whose livelihoods depended on an economic ecosystem that just packed up and moved south.
From The Post Millennial:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded to Citadel CEO Ken Griffin after the billionaire suggested he would take his empire to Miami and ditch the Big Apple for good. Griffin’s penthouse apartment was the subject of Mamdani’s ire in a viral video he posted to social media in which he criticized Griffin for being rich and having the apartment at all.
When asked about the video, Griffin called the video “creepy and weird” and said that “Mamdani has made it very clear—New York does not welcome success.” He also said Mamdani’s video made him “double down” on plans to move to Miami.
“New York does not welcome success.”
Let that phrase sink in. A billionaire employer who has paid $2.3 billion in city and state taxes over five years just told the world that New York’s mayor made him feel unwelcome. And Mamdani’s response? Not an ounce of contrition.
“I want all New Yorkers to succeed,” the mayor offered when pressed. Sounds reasonable — for about three seconds. He then barreled straight back into his comfort zone, insisting the tax system is “fundamentally broken” and demanding “the wealthiest New Yorkers paying their fair share.” Again, this man’s target has contributed $2.3 billion in taxes. At what point does “fair share” just mean “all of it”?
Citadel’s chief operating officer Gerald Beeson didn’t mince words, calling Mamdani’s stunt evidence of “the ignorance and disdain of the elite political class towards those who have been consistently committed to building one of the greatest cities in the world.”
He’s not wrong.
The real cost of class warfare
Let’s talk about what Mamdani’s ideological fixation is actually costing New York. Griffin’s pending $6 billion redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue would generate 6,000 construction jobs and support over 15,000 permanent positions in Midtown Manhattan. That project now dangles over a cliff. Griffin has also personally directed $650 million in charitable gifts to New York institutions — Memorial Sloan Kettering, Success Academy charter schools, and the Robin Hood Foundation. Those donations don’t keep flowing when the donor leaves.
And here’s the part that should terrify City Hall: it’s not just Citadel. Apollo Global Management, a $900 billion Wall Street firm that paid roughly $1.28 billion in income taxes last year, is now scouting locations for a major hub in Florida or Texas. One thousand employees. The Partnership for New York City estimates that Mamdani’s antics put 2,700 financial industry jobs and $168 million in annual state and city tax revenue at immediate risk.
One percent of New York City’s taxpayers generate half of all income tax revenue. Mamdani has declared open war on that one percent. As pro-business lobbyist James McMahon put it, “The golden goose of New York City is heading South in Spirit Airlines.”
“Without finance jobs Manhattan is a very expensive mall,” added Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy. Hard to argue with that.
A familiar exodus
None of this is hypothetical. Griffin already did exactly this to Chicago. He relocated Citadel’s headquarters to Miami in 2022, fed up with rising crime and progressive mismanagement. He told CNBC that Mamdani’s behavior is “triggering of the trauma I went through in Chicago,” comparing New York’s decline to the mess created by Pritzker and Lightfoot.
Meanwhile, 114,000 New Yorkers fled the city before Mamdani even took Gracie Mansion. And in a move that speaks volumes, former Mayor Eric Adams — a fellow Democrat — personally called Griffin to beg him to reconsider. When your own predecessor is doing damage control on your behalf, the message is clear.
The grim punchline practically delivers itself. Mamdani wants to soak the rich to bankroll his sprawling social programs, but his socialist crusade is guaranteeing there will be fewer wealthy taxpayers left to fund any of it — and fewer jobs for the working families he pretends to champion. Florida and Texas aren’t complaining. They’ll happily welcome what New York is reckless enough to throw away.
Key Takeaways
- Ken Griffin is shifting Citadel’s expansion to Miami as a direct result of Mamdani’s anti-wealth crusade.
- Mamdani’s “tax the rich” agenda jeopardizes billions in revenue and thousands of New York jobs.
- Apollo Global Management is also eyeing the exits, signaling a broader financial sector flight.
- Progressive cities that declare war on success always lose it — along with the working-class jobs attached to it.
Sources: The Post Millennial, New York Post
The post Ken Griffin Moves Citadel Jobs to Miami as NYC Mayor Mamdani Doubles Down on Tax-the-Rich Agenda appeared first on Patriot Journal.
