Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, said that he has halted his New York City expansion after Mayor Zohran Mamdani instituted his tax plan.
Griffin expressed his thoughts about Mamdani at the Milken Global Conference this week.
“When we moved from Chicago, there was a debate between New York and Miami; it’s unquestionably true that we made the right choice,” said Griffin on the decision to move to Miami. “I’ll leave it at that. And now, what the Mayor of New York has made clear to my partners, and principally, my New York partners, is that we need to double-down on our bet in Miami because we want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty, and that embraces the opportunity for people to live the American dream and a dream of earned success, not a dream of redistributive handouts that leave people dependent on government for their lives.”
Griffin also took issue with Mamdani’s recent controversial social media post outside his midtown penthouse, calling it “creepy weird” and ultimately “frightening,” especially in light of the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“I mean, like, you literally look at the first time, you’re like, you gotta be kidding me. Okay?” Griffin said at the conference. “And then the second time, you’re like, you know what this is? Actually, this has gone from creepy to actually not really creepy; this has gone frightening.”
“The CEO of UnitedHealthcare was killed just a few blocks from my house,” he added. “And anything that creates, like an agitation of the extremists on either side of the aisle, is a frightening dynamic.”
Griffin also expressed admiration for President Donald Trump surviving three assassination attempts.
“You know, I’ve had my differences with President Trump over the years,” he added, “but the idea that he has survived three assassination attempts is just — it’s just incomprehensible. I mean, could you imagine the state of mind that you would be in having survived not one, not two, but now three separate.”
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