Trump and NYC's new socialist mayor call for Con Edison to lower rates, causing stock drop

President Donald Trump on Friday hosted New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the White House where they discussed affordability issues and called for lower electricity prices in the city, which caused a major utility’s stock to sink.

Trump and Mamdani, a democratic socialist, spoke to reporters in the Oval Office following their meeting and said that they intend to focus on addressing affordability issues, which Mamdani noted helped increase Trump’s level of support in New York City and was something his campaign tapped into.

“When we asked those New Yorkers who had voted for the president, and when we saw an increase in his numbers in New York City, that came back to the same issue – cost of living, cost of living, cost of living. They spoke about the cost of rent, the cost of Con Ed, the cost of childcare,” Mamdani explained.

Consolidated Edison, commonly known as Con Ed, is the main utility provider in New York City and has over 3 million customers, and President Trump echoed the need to reduce energy bills facing New Yorkers – saying there need to be talks with the company about lowering prices.

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“We talked about Con Edison. We have to work a little bit on getting the prices, because you know, we’ve gotten fuel prices way down, but it hasn’t shown up in Con Edison,” Trump said.

“We’re going to have to talk to them, you know, if we’re sending them fuel at a much lower price than it was a year ago, which is true, we have to get Con Edison to start lowering their rates,” he added.

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Con Edison told FOX Business the company “powers the economic engine of our country by delivering the most reliable energy to more than 9 million people who live, work, and travel through New York City every day.”

“We recognize affordability is a critical issue and work every day to balance the investments needed for resilience and reliability with customer costs. We welcome the opportunity to partner with the Mayor-elect on solutions that make New York affordable for everyone,” the company added.

Following Trump and Mamdani’s comments, Con Ed shares sank to close the week. Con Ed stock opened Friday’s session at $101.48 and hit a high of $103.28 – but it sank to a low of $99.55 following those remarks. The stock closed at $100.16, down 0.78% on Friday.

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For the year, shares are up about 13%. 

New York City voters elected Zohran Mamdani in early November, when he defeated independent challenger and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as well as Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. 

The Fox News Voter Poll found that while a 59% majority of New York City voters felt their family’s financial situation was holding steady, 22% felt that they were falling behind and just 17% felt they were getting ahead – with Mamdani leading among those holding steady or falling behind.

Voters said that the cost of living was the most important issue facing New York City, with 55% of respondents to the Fox News Voter Poll focusing on pocketbook issues, with the next closest issue being crime at 23%.

Among voters who cited the cost of living as New York City’s most important issue, 66% said they voted for Mamdani – more than double the 29% who backed Cuomo.