Trump to pull funding for New York subway system if MTA withholds crime stats

The Trump administration has threatened the New York City transportation agency with removing federal funding if the agency withholds its data on crime in the city’s subway at the end of the month.

President Donald Trump also wants the city to end its congestion pricing policies, which would mean that New York would require additional federal funds to make up the shortfall, WABC noted. Funds from the controversial congestion prices are designated to go to improvements for the city’s vast subway, bus and ferry system.

The Trump administration argues it’s stepping in to deal with threats to public safety. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber in a letter sent Tuesday that commuters are tired of putting their safety on the line as they travel around the city, adding that if the agency doesn’t take action, the Federal Transit Administration will take measures such as redirecting and withholding federal funds.

In 2024, New York City saw a spike in violent crime along the subway system. Stories of attacks dominated headlines and worried some tourists. However, the crime rate on the subway has dropped in recent months.

The letter requests that the MTA share its plans to battle crime, such as assaults on commuters and transit employees, as well as reducing injuries and fatalities from suicide and subway surfing. The administration also wants the MTA to take action to deter fare evasion.

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“The trend of violent crime, homelessness, and other threats to public safety on one of our nation's most prominent metro systems is unacceptable,” said Duffy. “After years of soft-on-crime policies, our Department is stepping in to restore order.”

“Commuters are sick and tired of feeling like they have to jeopardize their safety to get to work, go to school, or to travel around the city,” he added. “We will continue to fight to ensure their federal tax dollars are going towards a crime-free commute.”

The missive comes as the city and the federal government are at loggerheads over congestion pricing, with the Trump administration working to eliminate the toll program, having placed a deadline of this Friday to end it. However, New York has responded by suing, and it doesn’t plan on stopping to gather fees from drivers.

“The deadline will come and go, and the congestion pricing program will continue to deliver a much better traffic environment for New York and a lot of other economic benefits as well," Lieber told reporters at a press conference at Penn Station.

“It's the right thing to do for New York to continue it, but it's also very basic litigation reality, which is that when you have a dispute, the status quo stays unless one party gets an injunction to change it while you're resolving the dispute,” said Lieber.

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The MTA is set to receive $15 billion in congestion pricing to modernize the subway and make it more accessible, CBS News reported.

MTA Chief of Policy and External Relations John McCarthy said in a statement, “We are happy to discuss with Secretary Duffy our efforts, alongside the NYPD, to reduce crime and fare evasion.”

“The good news is numbers are moving in the right direction: crime is down 40 percent compared to the same period in 2020, right before the pandemic, and so far in 2025, there are fewer daily major crimes in transit than any non-pandemic year ever,” he added. “Moreover, in the second half of last year, subway fare evasion was down 25 percent after increasing dramatically during Covid.”