Skip to content
Sign in
Politics · North America

Trump criticizes New York City plan to phase out Central Park horse carriages

Donald Trump criticized New York City's proposed phaseout of horse-carriage rides, calling them a quintessential New York experience and a great tradition. The City Council was scheduled to vote on a bill that would end carriage rides by 2028.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 4 outlets' reporting · Article text read from 1 of 4 outletsHow it's made

View timeline · 5 entries
4 outletsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: MixedL 0 · C 2 · R 2
Updat3 graphic: United States
Updat3 graphic · Map data: Natural Earth Natural Earth (public domain)

What happened

Key facts

  • Donald Trump criticized New York City's proposed phaseout of horse-carriage rides (per New York Post).
  • Trump called New York City horse-drawn carriages a “quintessential New York experience” and a “great tradition.” (per New York Post).
  • The New York City Council was scheduled to vote on a bill to phase out horse carriages by 2028 (per New York Post).
  • Trump said in a separate post that the carriage industry had operated for more than a century and that the proposed change was based largely on one tragic accident (per New York Post).
  • The bill was named “Romanch’s Law” for Romanch Mahajan, a teenage tourist killed in a fall from a Central Park carriage horse that year (per New York Post).
  • Fox News's headline said New York City voted to end a nearly 170-year-old horse-carriage tradition and that drivers threatened a lawsuit.
  • The Hill's headline said Trump lamented a New York horse-drawn carriage ban (per The Hill, New York Post).

The brief

Donald Trump criticized New York City’s proposed phaseout of horse-carriage rides, arguing in posts on Truth Social that the Central Park activity is a valued tradition. The New York Post reported that Trump called the carriages “a quintessential New York experience” and said it was sad to see the industry ending. He also described the activity as “a great tradition.”

The New York City Council was scheduled to vote Thursday on a bill that would phase out horse carriages by 2028. The New York Post said the proposal was called “Romanch’s Law,” after Romanch Mahajan, a teenage tourist who was killed that year in a fall from a Central Park carriage horse. The bill’s proposed timetable would end the practice by 2028. In a separate Truth Social post, Trump said the carriage industry had operated for more than a century and argued that the change was based largely on one tragic accident. He compared the proposed phaseout with the continued entry of cars into the park after car accidents in the area, which he said occur frequently. Those were Trump’s stated arguments against the plan. The New York Post characterized the city’s proposal as a push to ban the horse-carriage industry. Its account also reported Trump’s assertion that the proposed change was politically motivated. That characterization belongs to Trump; the article does not provide a separate explanation from city officials for the bill. Other headlines describe the issue in related terms. Fox News said New York City voted to end a nearly 170-year-old horse-carriage tradition and said drivers threatened a lawsuit. Newsweek’s headline characterized the proposal as a ban by Mamdani, while The Hill said Trump lamented a ban. Those headlines do not provide further details about the vote, the drivers’ threatened lawsuit, or Mamdani’s role. The immediate next step described in the New York Post account was the City Council vote on the phaseout bill. If enacted as described, the measure would end horse-carriage rides by 2028. Trump’s public criticism centers on the tradition and his claim that one accident underlies the proposed change; the bill’s stated name links it to Mahajan’s fatal fall.

Why it matters

  • The proposed bill would phase out horse-carriage rides by 2028, directly affecting the carriage industry in New York City.
  • The measure is named for Romanch Mahajan, a teenage tourist killed in a fall from a Central Park carriage horse, connecting the proposal to a fatal accident.
  • Trump has publicly opposed the proposed phaseout, calling the rides a New York experience and a tradition.

What to watch next

  • Whether the New York City Council votes on the horse-carriage phaseout bill.
  • Whether the bill, if enacted, sets the phaseout to conclude by 2028.
  • Whether carriage drivers pursue the lawsuit threatened in Fox News’s headline.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
4 source articles · 4 unique outlets
Outlet political mix: Mixed· 2 Center · 2 Right
Where the outlets are based: US/Canada 100%
Outlet political mix
Mixed
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
2 outlets
2 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
4 unique outletsDominant coverage: US/Canada
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in US/Canada (4 of 4 geographically-identified sources).
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. Central Park opened to the public in 1858, and horse-drawn carriages became a familiar way for visitors to travel through the park.
    Background · from our historical context
  2. Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio pledged to end New York City horse-carriage rides.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. The question of whether to ban the trade became a prominent city political issue in 2014, when Mayor Bill de Blasio, then a mayoral candidate, pledged to end horse-drawn carriage rides.
    Background · from our historical context
  4. After taking office in January 2014, he supported legislation to prohibit them, but proposals to impose a ban did not become law.
    Background · from our historical context
  5. Teenage tourist Romanch Mahajan died after falling from a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3

How we got here

In 2026, teenage tourist Romanch Mahajan was killed after falling from a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park; the proposed phaseout bill was named for him.

The accident became the immediate backdrop to a New York City Council proposal to end carriage rides by 2028, while opponents argued that one fatal incident should not end an industry they said had operated for more than a century. New York City’s horse-carriage trade grew during the 19th century, when horses provided transportation before motor vehicles became widespread.

Original sources

4 articles from 4 outlets

Every story links to the reporting it was built from. How we choose sources

Spotted a factual error, a broken link or a misleading summary? Tell us.