Mayor Adams is bringing Sean Duffy, the head of President Trump’s Department of Transportation, on a tour of the city subways Friday, according to a surprise announcement from the mayor’s office.
“I’m going to talk about our success in the subway system … I’m going to tell him we’re going to keep analyzing congestion pricing to make sure this is good for New Yorkers and what dollars we need,” the mayor said on NY1 before affirming that he supports “[Gov. Hochul’s] initiative of implementing congestion pricing.”
Adams also said he would bring Duffy to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and talk to him in general about New York City’s infrastructure needs.
“I want the secretary to see everything from our BQE, some of the crumbling infrastructure that we have, I’m going to talk about even federal dollars for our public safety initiative,” he said on PIX11.
“I want to meet with every secretary, I want them to see how this city is the economic engine of the country and we need federal support to continue.”
The DOT secretary’s participation in the daily ritual of millions of New Yorkers comes less than two weeks after Duffy called the subway system a “s–thole” while filling potholes in New Jersey.
That comment came amid Duffy’s subway scare tactics, with the secretary threatening to withhold federal funding for the system over perceptions of crime — despite the NYPD declaring 2024 the safest year for straphangers in more than a decade.
Adams wouldn’t tell reporters which station he would be taking Duffy to — nor whether the Wisconsinite would even board a subway.
In the midst of a back-and-forth regarding safety stats last week, MTA chairman Janno Lieber invited Duffy to ride the train with him and see the system for himself.
But multiple sources at the transit agency told the Daily News Friday that Duffy’s visit had been set up without their participation or knowledge.
While the city — not the MTA — is responsible for paying the police who patrol the subway system, Duffy’s decision to meet with Adams and not transit bosses comes as the mayor is under increasing fire for his warming ties to the Trump regime amid its dismissal of his corruption indictment.
But Adams defended his decision to meet with Duffy Friday.
“I can’t communicate with him if I just ball up my fist and say, ‘I’m not going to speak with you because you’re a Republican,’” he told reporters. “No, I’m going to open my hand, extend it and shake his hand and say, ‘I want to produce for the city that I love,’” he said.
