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Dave Portnoy Hints At Leaving New York After Clash With Politician

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Dave Portnoy
Photo Credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he is seriously considering closing the company’s New York City office following the election of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor.

During a YouTube livestream before the election, Portnoy told viewers he had thought a lot about leaving New York altogether.

“I hate the guy,” he said. “I can’t stand the thought of him running New York City. I can’t stand it.”

Portnoy referred to Mamdani as a “thirty-something-year-old Communist running New York City who’s never had a job in his life, hates America — doesn’t seem like the best.”

He discussed potentially relocating Barstool’s office to New Jersey cities like Hoboken or Jersey City.

“I don’t want to f****** have an office [in Manhattan],” he said. “But then we have all those people who, like, that f**** up their life because I hate the guy.”

“Like, all the people in the New York office have to go to Jersey City or Hoboken. So it’s a Catch-22.”

Portnoy added that he had instructed his finance team to begin looking for potential properties outside Manhattan, noting that it would be a “principled stand.”

Mamdani’s campaign centered around affordability issues. He pledged to freeze rent increases on rent-stabilized apartments, offer free bus service, establish city-run grocery stores in each borough, and implement universal child care.

His agenda also included increasing the minimum wage, building 200,000 new affordable housing units, and creating a “community safety department” to handle mental health emergencies instead of police.

Portnoy had previously criticized Mamdani in a July interview with FOX Business, calling him “one of the worst, scariest candidates.”

“He hates capitalism, he wants a fundamental shift in what has built this country, and he doesn’t really particularly hide it,” Portnoy said.

“It’s a very scary time,” he added. “I can’t believe that this guy may be the mayor of New York City.”

After Mamdani’s election win, Portnoy reacted on X, writing, “But if this is what the people of NYC want then so be it. Thank god I don’t live there anymore.”

He later clarified in an interview with the Daily Mail that higher taxes were not his primary concern.

“The taxes is the least of it for me. He is a communist. I am a capitalist,” Portnoy said.

“I think wanting to be successful and rich is a positive quality. He thinks it makes you evil. I think hard work should be rewarded. He wants everybody to get a trophy.”

Mamdani’s economic policies include raising taxes on corporations and the city’s wealthiest residents, though these changes would need approval from state lawmakers.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also weighed in on the mayoral election. He posted an online survey asking Floridians how the state should respond to New Yorkers potentially leaving the city following Mamdani’s victory.

“Floridians — response to the Mamdani election in NYC should be to: Build an FL border wall, Tariff all transplants, Recruit new transplants,” DeSantis wrote on X.

His post came in response to a message from Florida State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who suggested that Florida should “tariff everyone fleeing NYC.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott made similar remarks before the election results were finalized, warning that New Yorkers who fled the city under Mamdani’s leadership would face a “100% tariff” if they moved to Texas.

Abbott did not provide details on how such a policy would work but said his warning was a statement of principle.

On Fox News, host Sean Hannity cited data suggesting that 9% of New Yorkers planned to leave the city after the election.

During the interview, DeSantis said Florida continues to welcome new residents but prefers they leave their “far-left politics” behind.

“First of all, we’re not asking for anyone to move. People have talked about putting a tariff on people moving in at this point, because so many have done so,” he began.

“And I know a lot of people in Florida would think that that would be necessary, but here’s just the truth: You look at all 49 other states since I’ve been governor, look at who’s migrated to Florida,” the lawmaker noted.

“When I got elected, we had 300,000 more registered Democrats in Florida. Today, we have 1.4 million more Republicans. Nobody has ever seen a change that profound.”

DeSantis also criticized Mamdani’s positions on law enforcement and national monuments. “This is a guy, Mamdani, he wants to take down the Columbus statue. I have already said if they take that from Manhattan, we will take it in Florida,” he remarked.

He said Mamdani was “shooting” himself in the foot with New York City voters, noting that lowering costs with city-run grocery stores would never work.

The Florida governor also accused Mamdani of showing little empathy toward victims of the 9/11 attacks, saying the new mayor “never expressed sympathy in that regard for all the people that got murdered.”

“He’s always embraced George Soros-style soft-on-crime policies,” DeSantis added. “He hates the NYPD, if you look at his history. He is not going to stand up for law enforcement.”

“The number one thing that moves people to want to flee these jurisdictions is the collapse of public safety,” DeSantis continued. “And I think he’s going to make the [Bill] de Blasio reign look like the Golden Age.”

Meanwhile, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel reacted to Mamdani’s victory during his Wednesday monologue, celebrating the result and taking shots at President Donald Trump.

“Everything he touched was a loser,” Kimmel said. “Trump hasn’t been this embarrassed since he found out there was a Donald Trump Jr.”

He mocked Trump’s reaction on Truth Social, where the president noted he was not on the ballot and blamed broader political issues for poor Republican results.

“Now, if Republicans had won, and he wasn’t on the ballot, would he take credit for that? Oh, yes, he definitely would,” Kimmel joked.

Kimmel also criticized Republicans for their ongoing focus on election fraud.

“It’s weird how it’s only fraud when they lose, right?” he said. “What are the chances?”

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