Congestion pricing in New York City – the program that tolls cars entering Manhattan’s central business district to raise money for mass transit – appears already to be an enormous success. During its first month the plan has raised nearly $50 million for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the system. The city’s nightmarish gridlock has begun to come untangled, with increased traffic speeds, far fewer automobile accidents, and reduced commuting times for those who continue to drive.

So why is the Trump administration hellbent on killing the program? After Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy informed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that his department had withdrawn its approval for the plan, the president himself issued a gloating victory proclamation on his social media app.

"CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"

While the program is not quite dead – and continues to operate while both the MTA and the DOT prepare for a court battle – there can be little doubt about Trump’s furious opposition, which appears to be rooted in the same anti-environmental animus as his hatred of wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles, and his worship of coal and oil.

To enforce his edict against congestion pricing, a plan that has worked successfully in cities around the world for more than two decades, Trump has dispatched Alina Habba, his former personal defense attorney who now serves as a counselor to the president. Habba has appeared frequently on right-wing media to trash the program. She also showed up at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, where she said:

“Congestion pricing in New York is ruining tourism, it’s stopping people that work there from driving to work, their subways are not safe. These people [referring to New York political leaders like Gov. Kathy Hochul] are caring more about their next election, they’re caring more about their face on TV than they do the people they’re supposed to represent, the constituents that sent them to do the work…Unfortunately, they’ve taken us to court. We’ve seen it, we’ve won, we always win and keep winning…”

As always, Habba’s MAGA rhetoric was heavy with falsehood and bluster. She didn’t explain why the White House has cast aside the conservative values of home rule and states’ rights to intervene in local affairs.

Far from ruining tourism, congestion pricing seems to have increased the number of visitors and the amount of revenue since the program took effect. (It’s hard to spend money when you’re waiting for hours in a car, waiting to cross into Manhattan by bridge or tunnel.) Broadway ticket sales – a reliable measure of the tourist sector’s prosperity – were much higher this past January than a year ago.

The Broadway League, a trade group for the theatre industry, reported over $32 million in sales for the week ending January 12 this year, eight days after congestion pricing took effect – an increase of nearly $5 million over the same week last year. The following week, ending January 19, saw well over $33 million in sales, up from about $23 million during the same week in 2024. And during the last week of January, ticket sales were still up almost exactly $5 million over last year. Someone might say those are HUGE numbers – and certainly no sign of “ruined tourism.”

Although many more people have left cars at home, there’s no sign that New Yorkers (or commuters from New Jersey) have stopped going to work. Subway crime, contrary to Habba’s claims, is lower than it was a year ago and much lower than before the pandemic. Chances of becoming a crime victim, especially of homicide, are far lower in the subway than above ground.

A recent Morning Consult poll showed strong majorities in favor of the new system among both city and suburban voters, as well as broad agreement among commuters that it is working as advertised. They want the federal government to leave it alone.

The dispute between Trump and Hochul will ultimately be decided in federal court, as Habba indicated. But her assertion that “we always win” is comical. Anyone familiar with her own dismal record as Trump’s attorney – replete with embarrassing errors, dismissals, fines and yes, losses to E. Jean Harris and the New York Times, among others – will regard her boast with due skepticism.

Yet there is something to be learned from Habba’s passionate public attack on congestion pricing – namely that in this Trump White House, as legal experts have warned, there are again no ethical boundaries. She has a direct financial interest in canceling the Manhattan tolls that goes well beyond her status as a New Jersey resident.

Habba’s husband Gregg Reuben is chief executive of Centerpark, a parking garage company that owns 28 garages in New York City, most of which are in Manhattan’s congestion pricing zone, according to Streetsblog. Reuben has a long career in parking that dates back to 1991. He is former vice president of ABM Industries, one of the largest parking management companies in the United States. Habba formerly served as Centerpark’s general counsel -- and doesn’t appear to have fully relinquished that commitment in her new position.

Their family wealth is sure to be affected by congestion pricing, which has reduced the number of cars entering that zone so far by over a million every month. There are and will be far fewer customers (suckers?) for her husband’s exorbitantly priced spaces: Centerpark charges $45 per day or more, a far more daunting deterrent to tourism than the $9 congestion toll.

If Habba is worried about the entertainment and restaurant industries, maybe she should urge him to drop those absurd prices.

And maybe the next time she pops up on television to whine about the congestion toll, someone should ask her about her husband’s business – which she somehow never remembers to mention. As John Kaehny, a nonpartisan ethics expert in Albany, told Streetsblog, “It’s an absolute and complete conflict of interest. If she was a New York official, we’d be calling on the Conflict of Interest Board to investigate.”

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.