Trump’s SOTU jab backfired, sending 1,400 New Yorkers to sign up for Mamdani’s storm program in a single day
An Unexpected Gift from the State of the Union
When President Donald Trump stood before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night and mocked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s emergency snow-shoveling program, he may not have anticipated what would come next. By Wednesday morning, Mamdani was at a podium thanking the president. Not sarcastically — genuinely. Because in the 24 hours following Trump’s remarks, more than 1,400 New Yorkers enrolled in the program. That single-day surge more than doubled the total workforce Mamdani’s administration inherited when it took office. “I can tell you, I didn’t expect this much attention nationwide on our emergency snow shoveler program,” Mamdani said Wednesday. “I mean yesterday, we saw more than 1,000 New Yorkers enroll into this program, and that, in and of itself, doubles the size of the snow shoveling program that we first found when coming into office.”
What Trump Actually Said
During his State of the Union address, Trump singled out the New York City program as an example of what he described as bad Democratic policy. His specific target was the requirement that temporary snow shovelers provide two forms of identification to get paid. Trump used that fact to draw a contrast with his push for voter ID legislation. “Yet they don’t want identification for the greatest privilege of them all — voting in America,” Trump said, drawing applause from Republican members of Congress. The attack was a staple of conservative messaging: the idea that cities run by progressive mayors apply strict documentation rules for minor government programs while resisting identification requirements at the ballot box. Trump also offered a personal aside: he called Mamdani “a nice guy” with “bad policies.”
Mamdani’s Response: Federal Law, Not City Policy
The mayor’s office pushed back on the framing directly. Mamdani noted that the identification requirement for temporary workers is not a Mamdani policy — it is a federal requirement for anyone receiving government wages. The city does not get to waive federal employment verification rules for temporary hires. That context was missing from Trump’s remarks, and the mayor made a point of clarifying it. The program itself, which Mamdani noted “has existed for years” as part of storm emergency response, pays temporary workers to clear crosswalks, bus stops, fire hydrants, and sidewalks adjacent to city-owned property.
The Program’s Track Record
The snow shoveler program became a notable feature of Mamdani’s first-term storm response after a January 2026 blizzard tested his administration’s readiness. Workers in the program collectively cleared more than 16,000 crosswalks, 4,000 fire hydrants, and 7,000 bus stops during that first storm. When the second major blizzard hit in late February, Mamdani raised the program’s pay rate to $30 per hour — a decision that quickly helped double enrollment and speed deployment. The NYC Department of Sanitation coordinates the program as part of its broader winter storm response, and the mayor’s office has made expanding public awareness of the program a priority.
The Diplomatic Oddity of It All
The exchange between Trump and Mamdani is a striking example of the unusual political moment New York City’s new mayor occupies. Mamdani ran for office on an explicitly anti-Trump platform, promising his administration would be the president’s “worst nightmare.” Yet since taking office, he has taken a carefully measured approach to the federal relationship — accepting a White House invitation, maintaining what both parties have described as semi-frequent text communication, and avoiding the kind of public confrontation that defined his predecessor Bill de Blasio’s relationship with Trump. The State of the Union mention was a moment where Trump did Mamdani an unintentional favor, and the mayor was gracious enough to acknowledge it. Research on workforce development programs consistently shows that emergency employment programs like NYC’s snow shoveler initiative serve dual purposes: addressing immediate municipal needs while providing income opportunities for workers who benefit most from short-term public employment.
What It Says About the Mamdani-Trump Dynamic
The interaction reveals something important about how Mamdani is navigating the Trump era. He is not seeking confrontation for its own sake. When Trump inadvertently promotes a city program, Mamdani says thank you and moves on. When Trump’s policies threaten New Yorkers — through immigration enforcement, federal funding cuts, or attacks on the social safety net — Mamdani pushes back, but quietly. Whether that approach serves the city’s long-term interests, or whether it represents a missed opportunity to build a national opposition narrative, is a question that political observers across the ideological spectrum are actively debating. For now, the snow shoveler program has more workers than ever before. And the NYC plow tracker was showing encouraging results by late February.
