New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Bids Donald Trump ‘Good Riddance,’ Tells State Of Florida, ‘He’s All Yours’
Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he would shift his legal permanent residence from New York City, where he was born and raised, to Palm Beach, Florida. The historic Mar-a-Lago estate that Trump has owned since 1985 is located in Palm Beach. When word that Trump was abandoning New York became public, Governor Andrew Cuomo did not seem too broken up about losing the state’s most prominent resident.
“Good riddance,” Cuomo declared, as quoted by USA Today. “It’s not like Donald Trump paid taxes here anyway. He’s all yours, Florida.”
Last month, Trump filed a “declaration of domicile” with the Palm Beach County Circuit Court, according to a New York Times report that broke the story of Trump’s residence change. With that court filing, Trump declared his new legal state of residence to be Florida.
Trump, “rich, bombastic and to many Americans the epitome of a New Yorker — was intertwined with the city he called his lifelong home,” according to NYT reporter Maggie Haberman. The report also said that Trump’s wife, Melania, joined her husband in switching her permanent legal residence to Florida. Both Donald and Melania Trump stated that Mar-a-Lago will now serve as their primary address.
While Trump took to Twitter to confirm the report and add that “I cherish New York, and the people of New York and always will,” as quoted by Haberman, he also griped about what he perceived as unfair treatment by public officials in New York.
“I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state. Few have been treated worse,” Trump claimed. He added that his abandonment of New York as his legal home state was “best for all concerned.”
In the court filing, Trump listed his previous residence as 721 5th Avenue in New York — the address of Trump Tower, where he resided from 1983 until his move to the White House in January of 2017.
According to Haberman’s report, Trump has spent 99 days at his Mar-a-Lago property since his inauguration on January 20, 2017. In that same span, Trump has visited his Trump Tower home of 36 years for only 20 days.
Trump claimed in a Twitter posting that he pays “millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year,” a claim contradicted by Cuomo in his own Thursday tweet.
Because Trump has never released his tax returns, and continues to battle in court to prevent both Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney from obtaining those returns, there is no way to know whether Trump or Cuomo is accurate about the amount of tax the president has paid to New York.
One thing is certain: Trump will pay no state income tax in Florida. The Sunshine State does not collect income tax from its residents.
