Gov. Kathy Hochul jumped on the anti-Trump train, touting herself Monday as the new leader of the
“Resistance” to the President’s agenda.
“Once you draw first blood on us, you know we’re coming back hard, and I will be leading the resistance on policies like these where you’re hurting New Yorkers directly,” she told NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
The assertion contrasts sharply with Hochul’s comments less than two weeks ago, when she told reporters the exact opposite.
“I’ve been asked countless times, ‘Are you leading the resistance?’ When asked about her shift in stance toward President Trump’s administration, Hochul responded, “No, I’m governing the great state of New York.”
As Trump took office, Hochul publicly embraced a cooperative relationship with the incoming administration, congratulating him on his stunning election victory in a conversation “focused on collaboration,” according to sources.
But since the US Department of Transportation moved to kill New York’s congestion pricing scheme, Hochul has taken a different tone, holding a profanity-laced press conference where she compared herself to Rambo and announced a lawsuit to prevent Trump from repealing the tolling program.
The governor’s campaign then quickly released an ad featuring Hochul wearing a windbreaker as she walks in slow motion through the subway, reminiscent of a Rambo film.
Between her fiery subway press conference and her campaign’s release of the dramatic supercut, Hochul met with Trump at the White House in a meeting her spokesperson described as “frank” and “candid.”
The two have also discussed a possible federal cash infusion to help rehabilitate Penn Station and make transit upgrades, but the Democrat has yet to see any results from her diplomatic efforts.
Using Trump as a foil may be Hochul’s best chance of increasing her dismal approval ratings, according to pollsters.
“It’s good because she’s making Trump a target. Targets are useful in politics.” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Polling Institute, told The Post on Monday.
According to a Siena College poll released last month, 57% of New Yorkers would prefer another candidate to run in the 2026 gubernatorial election over Hochul.
Only 39% of New Yorkers rated her favorably in the same poll.
“Because Hochul doesn’t have a strong identity, she can find one by attacking Trump,” Miringoff said.
Others suggested that, while Hochul’s resistance rebranding may be a wise political move, she should go beyond simply posting clips online.
“New Yorkers are savvy,” Democratic strategist Jon Reinish told The Post.
“You have to come back with receipts that you’ve gone toe-to-toe and won: meaning, gotten concessions or forced action in order to be able to take credit,” he told me.
Hochul’s critics noted that they have never believed her to be anything other than anti-Trump.
“She is just readily looking for ways to push back against him for political gain,” New York State Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar told The Post.
“She says one thing and she does another, but she’s dealing with a New Yorker who is very intuitive on false rhetoric and his position versus hers has really not changed no matter how she reacts,” Kassar told me.
Hochul’s campaign is getting underway as she seeks reelection for a second full term.
She won her first full term in 2022, succeeding Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 and for whom she served as lieutenant governor.
Hochul announced last week that she is hiring a new campaign manager, Preston Elliott, a political veteran who has previously worked on campaigns for Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
