—Kerry Hill, B1Daily

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul are delivering a message to Washington that might surprise anyone accustomed to America’s endless arguments over “defunding the police”: send New York its law-enforcement money.

On September 1, Hochul and Mamdani joined law-enforcement officials to demand that the Trump administration release $87 million in federal counterterrorism and emergency-preparedness funding that New York officials say was previously promised to the state.

Hochul didn’t dance around the politics.

“Donald Trump is defunding the police,” she declared.

The accusation makes for irresistible political theater, but underneath the slogan is a serious dispute over who should pay for the specialized infrastructure protecting America’s largest city from terrorism.

This Isn’t Money for Parking Tickets

The $87 million at issue isn’t simply a general-purpose check that New York wants to dump into the NYPD’s operating budget.

The federal Homeland Security Grant Program was established after the September 11 terrorist attacks to strengthen state and local governments’ ability to prevent and respond to terrorism. The disputed New York funding supports programs including bomb squads, intelligence operations, emergency communications, hazardous-material response, search-and-rescue capabilities and other specialized public-safety operations.

Mamdani argued that federal support helps maintain 12 bomb-disposal units statewide and ensures firefighters can communicate and respond during catastrophic incidents, including radiological emergencies.

“There is no excuse for the federal government to leave the nation’s largest city to shoulder this burden alone,” Mamdani said.

On that narrow point, Mamdani has a powerful argument.

New York is not some sleepy municipality asking Washington to subsidize a shiny new police station. It remains one of the most symbolically important potential terrorism targets on Earth.

September 11 already demonstrated the catastrophic consequences when terrorists successfully strike the city.

Mamdani’s Position Is Politically Fascinating

The politics become particularly interesting because of Mamdani’s own history with policing.

His critics spent the 2025 mayoral campaign attacking his earlier support for the “defund the police” movement. Now Mayor Mamdani is standing alongside New York’s governor demanding that Washington provide millions of dollars supporting law enforcement and emergency preparedness.

There is an important distinction.

Mamdani is not suddenly asking Trump to finance every conventional policing program imaginable. The money at issue is specifically tied to counterterrorism and homeland security.

Still, governing has a funny way of turning slogans into spreadsheets.

It is considerably easier to debate police funding as an activist or legislator than it is when you become mayor of a city of more than eight million people and discover that bomb squads, intelligence analysts, specialized emergency teams and terrorism-response infrastructure cost actual money.

The mayor now has responsibility for what happens if those systems fail.

Suddenly the abstraction becomes brutally concrete.

Hochul Has Turned “Defund the Police” Against Trump

Hochul’s rhetoric is even more politically calculated.

For years Republicans successfully weaponized “defund the police” against Democrats. Hochul has now picked up that rhetorical grenade and thrown it straight back across the aisle.

Her argument is simple: if Washington withholds money used by police departments, firefighters, bomb squads and intelligence personnel, then Republicans cannot claim exclusive ownership of the pro-law-enforcement mantle.

Hochul says the administration initially cut approximately $187 million from New York’s homeland-security funding last year. Trump subsequently announced that he had reversed the cuts, writing in October 2025 that he had restored Homeland Security and counterterrorism funding for New York City and the state.

According to Hochul, New York received $100 million but is still waiting for the remaining $87 million.

Ten days before the 25th anniversary of September 11, she turned the pressure dial to maximum.

“If you don’t release the counterterrorism funding, you’re betraying every family that lost someone on 9/11,” Hochul said.

That is not subtle politics.

It isn’t intended to be.

The Trump Administration Has a Very Different Story

The White House and Department of Homeland Security aren’t conceding Hochul’s framing.

DHS says New York is “manufacturing a funding crisis” and argues that the state and city are seeking additional taxpayer money while more than $300 million in previously awarded federal homeland-security grants remains unspent.

That allegation deserves scrutiny too.

If New York genuinely has hundreds of millions of dollars in available homeland-security funding sitting unused, Hochul and Mamdani need to explain exactly why those funds cannot address the programs they say are threatened.

The federal government also says New York is slated to receive more than $200 million in Homeland Security Grant Program funding for fiscal 2026, including money associated with security costs surrounding major events such as this year’s FIFA World Cup matches.

So this isn’t simply a cartoonish story where Trump switches off every federal dollar flowing toward New York police.

There is a genuine dispute over previously promised money, existing unspent grants and what Washington still owes.

Public Safety Shouldn’t Become Political Hostage-Taking

Where Trump deserves scrutiny is over whether federal security funding is being used as leverage against states whose immigration and election policies his administration dislikes.

New York and Washington have been fighting intensely over immigration enforcement. Hochul has resisted efforts to involve state and local police more heavily in federal immigration enforcement, while the Trump administration argues New York’s sanctuary policies undermine public safety.

Those battles can be fought separately.

Counterterrorism funding shouldn’t become poker chips in a political casino.

If Congress and the federal government determined that New York qualifies for money protecting transit hubs, bomb squads and intelligence operations, those programs should rise or fall on their security merits, not on whether Washington approves of New York’s immigration politics.

New Yorkers who could become victims of terrorism don’t suddenly become Republicans or Democrats when a bomb explodes.

Mamdani Has Entered the Reality of Governing

There is nevertheless an unmistakable political irony surrounding Mamdani.

The former democratic socialist assemblyman once associated with calls to defund the NYPD is now the mayor of New York City standing beside law-enforcement officials arguing that government must properly finance public safety.

His supporters can reasonably argue there is no contradiction because Mamdani’s past criticism concerned traditional policing priorities, whereas today’s dispute involves specialized counterterrorism programs.

His critics can just as reasonably point out that this episode demonstrates why broad anti-police funding rhetoric was always dangerously simplistic.

Both observations can be true.

A government can demand police accountability while recognizing that law enforcement requires resources.

A city can pursue criminal-justice reform while maintaining bomb squads.

A progressive mayor can criticize police practices while recognizing that intelligence analysts, firefighters and terrorism-response teams do not operate on applause.

And a Republican president who champions law and order should be prepared to explain why money previously promised for those operations has not been fully delivered.

That is what makes this showdown so politically delicious.

After years of Republicans accusing Democrats of defunding police, Hochul and Mamdani have flipped the script and accused Donald Trump of doing exactly that.

Now everyone involved gets to demonstrate whether “public safety” is an actual governing principle or merely another slogan politicians pull from the drawer whenever it happens to hurt the other team.

—Kerry Hill, B1Daily