The Enemy Tax

By Abe Greenwald

Friday, April 24, 2026

 

Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a video announcing his proposed new pied-a-terre tax, which targets part-time apartments valued at or above $5 million. In the video, Mamdani stood on the street, pointed up to a penthouse owned by Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, told viewers that Griffin paid $238 million for the place, and scolded him for this supposed sin.

 

As ever with Mamdani, his terrible policy gets the headlines while the terrible intention behind it is surely the bigger story. 

 

Yesterday, Citadel responded with a statement denouncing Mamdani’s stunt and hinting that the company might pull out of developing new office space in New York, a project that’s expected to contribute $4.5 billion to the city’s economy.

 

Yes, we know that slapping wealthy job creators with punishing taxes is bad for the city because it drives them to other locales that will enjoy the infusion of jobs and tax revenue.

 

But Mamdani isn’t doing this because he thinks it will provide jobs or raise revenues for the city. The goal is to demonize and punish CEOs, both as a class and, more egregiously, as individuals. The goal, in fact, was achieved by the video itself.

 

What kind of policy announcement calls out a single individual by name, shows the world where the man (sometimes) lives, and broadcasts what he paid for his penthouse? Mamdani wanted to establish Griffin as an enemy of the left-wing mob, and surely he accomplished that.

 

The politics of left-wing vengeance never take into consideration the downstream effects of policy. It doesn’t matter whether defunding the police gets more black people killed or whether supporting Hamas dooms Gazans. So it certainly doesn’t matter whether a pied-a-terre tax helps or hurts New York City. All that matters is that the enemy is made to fear the mob.

 

So, in the same city where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed by a radical activist less than two years ago, the new radical mayor targets a hedge fund CEO as a villain who’s ripping off the little guy. And at almost exactly the same time, we’ve got Mamdani’s friend and supporter Hasan Piker appearing on a New York Times podcast talking about revolutionary violence as it applies to CEOs committing “social murder.”

 

It’s not hard to see where this kind of thing leads. Because we’ve already seen it go there.

 

If I were Ken Griffin, not only would I never give another red cent to New York City. I’d consult a lawyer about hitting Mamdani with a suit for incitement or reckless endangerment or some similar charge. He may not have a case, but it’s worth sending a warning shot, nonetheless.

 

When Republicans publicly focus their ire on private citizens, liberals take great offense. And they should.

 

The social-justice left loves to talk about feeling “unsafe”? Mamdani has more than 10 million social media followers. He’s a hero to left-wing revolutionaries around the world. How safe would you feel being singled out by name and address in one of his vengeful Instagram videos?
 
What happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about turning down the temperature of political debate? This was a strange and sickening week for American politics.