The father of Jared Kushner says he will abandon New York City as his home and become a Florida resident, calling Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji openly antisemitic, a move that sharpens the growing confrontation between the city's progressive leadership and its Jewish community.
Charles Kushner, the real estate investor who built Kushner Companies into one of the country's best-known family real estate firms, told the New York Post he plans to make Florida his primary residence. He will keep his New York apartment but pay the city's pied-à-terre tax, a levy Mamdani has promoted to target wealthy property owners who don't live in the city full time.
Kushner, who currently lives in Paris while serving as U.S. Ambassador to France, did not hold back about why he's done with the city he has called home for decades.
"I don't want to pay taxes and live in a city with a blatantly antisemitic mayor and his antisemitic wife, period."
He went further, saying the problem extends beyond City Hall.
"I also don't want to live in the city with the people who voted for him."
Kushner's departure follows a pattern of wealthy New Yorkers relocating to Florida, where there is no state income tax. But he framed his decision as driven primarily by the mayor's conduct toward Jews and Israel, not by finances alone.
Kushner pointed to a string of actions by Mamdani that he said made the city hostile to Jewish residents. The mayor refused to march in the Israel Day Parade. He called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal. And he reached out to Columbia University protesters who, in Kushner's characterization, celebrated Hamas.
The first lady's conduct drew equal fire. Duwaji reportedly liked a social media post supporting Palestinian resistance after the October 7 attack, a detail Kushner described as celebrating brutality.
Kushner said he sees no room for dialogue with people who hold those views.
"I don't think you can reason with people that celebrate brutality on October 7th and say it was a hoax."
He added:
"I don't think they are people worth talking to. I speak to a lot of people that don't have political views that I have, and there's two sides, and I respect everybody's opinion, but I don't respect anybody that celebrates murder, rape, brutality."
That frustration echoes a broader pattern among prominent figures distancing themselves from progressive institutions over the issue of antisemitism. A Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice recently left the Democratic Party over what he described as the party's tolerance of antisemitism, a move that signaled how deep the rupture has grown.
Kushner's decision also carries a financial dimension that Mamdani himself helped sharpen. The mayor released a video clip, described as going viral, in which he called out billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin by name. Mamdani used Griffin as an example of the ultra-rich who "store their wealth in New York City real estate but don't actually live here full time," framing the pied-à-terre tax as a matter of fairness.
Kushner pushed back hard on the idea that singling out wealthy individuals by name is good governance.
"You know, Ken Griffin worked hard to earn all that money. He took a lot of risk to earn all that money. That's what America's about."
The approach of publicly targeting individual taxpayers to build support for a tax proposal is a tactic more commonly associated with populist campaigns than with responsible city management. It sends a clear message to high-net-worth residents: you are the problem, and we will name you.
Kushner is not the only one who got that message. He said he believes many others share his feelings about the city's direction.
"I think there's a lot of people like me that love New York City."
For all his frustration, Kushner acknowledged New York's resilience. He called the city "an economic center, and really a cultural center, and it's the center of the world." He noted that former Mayor Bill de Blasio, widely criticized during his tenure, failed to inflict lasting damage on the city's vitality.
But Kushner drew a sharp distinction between de Blasio and Mamdani. Where de Blasio was merely a poor manager, Kushner suggested, Mamdani's combination of socialist economics and hostility toward Jews and Israel poses a more fundamental threat.
"But if I was a betting person, if one person could ruin it or bring it down, it's this mayor."
That warning carries weight from a man whose family built a real estate empire in the city. Charles Kushner's eldest son, Jared, served as a senior White House adviser and is President Trump's son-in-law. His younger son, Joshua, founded Thrive Capital. The Kushner name is woven into New York's business landscape, and the family's departure represents a tangible loss, not just a symbolic one.
The broader dynamic is familiar. Progressive leaders in major cities adopt policies and rhetoric that alienate the tax base, then express surprise when high earners leave. The result is a shrinking pool of revenue and a growing population of residents who depend on government services, a cycle that progressive governance consistently accelerates but rarely acknowledges.
Mamdani's approach fits the pattern. His pied-à-terre tax targets wealthy non-residents. His public rhetoric names individual billionaires. His stance on Israel alienates one of the city's most established and historically loyal communities. And his outreach to campus protesters signals where his sympathies lie.
Progressive Democrats have struggled with this issue nationally. In one recent episode, progressive members confused two Jewish colleagues in a failed social media attack that backfired when their own voting records contradicted their claims, an incident that revealed how carelessly some in the party handle matters involving Jewish members.
In 2004, Charles Kushner pled guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign contributions. He was later pardoned by President Trump. His legal history will give critics an easy line of attack, but it does not change the substance of his complaint about Mamdani's conduct, conduct that is a matter of public record, not personal grievance.
Kushner said he plans to settle into Florida life with family and friends who have already made the same move. He described the opportunity as fundamentally American.
"The opportunity is there for all Americans."
His final words about the voters who put Mamdani in office were blunt.
"I hope they find happiness with this moronic mayor."
The internal fractures within the Democratic coalition over antisemitism and Israel continue to widen. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has kept her 2028 presidential ambitions alive while fielding criticism from within her own party, a sign that the progressive wing's direction remains deeply contested even among Democrats.
Kushner said he will enjoy a "very nice life" as a Florida resident. New York will keep his apartment and his pied-à-terre tax payments. What it is losing, the confidence of people who built their lives and businesses there, is harder to replace.
When a lifelong New Yorker with roots that deep decides the city's leadership has made it unlivable, the people who should worry most are not the ones leaving, they're the ones staying behind to pay the bill.
