New York

If New York Puts a Casino in the Bronx, Trump Will Get $115 Million

Published

12 months ago

April 1, 2025

If New York Puts a Casino in the Bronx, Trump Will Get 5 Million

When the Trump Organization sold its interest in a public golf course in New York City to Bally’s, the deal was freighted with symbolism.

Bally’s promptly erased the giant “Trump Links” sign from the property in the Bronx by the Whitestone Bridge. Suddenly, a visible artifact of President Trump’s despised presence in New York was gone, and Bally’s — one of several bidders hoping to win one of three coveted casino licenses up for grabs in the state — took credit.

The ceremony in 2024 created the impression of an irrevocable separation between the Bally’s bid and the Trump Organization. But the two in fact remain intertwined.

If Bally’s were to win a casino license, it would have to pay the Trump Organization $115 million, according to the companies’ purchase agreement. That is on top of the $60 million Bally’s already paid the Trump Organization to acquire the remainder of its lease for the city-owned golf course.

The agreement with Bally’s was referenced in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against Mr. Trump and his family business, but has received little publicity.

Bally’s and the Trump Organization made the agreement before Mr. Trump’s second term, but the payout would come while he is president, and as he considers countless issues affecting the finances and governance of New York State and New York City. The state is running the casino siting competition, with input from local elected officials, including Mayor Eric Adams.

The mayor frequently says he would like a casino in New York City, but has declined to endorse a particular bidder. Even so, he may have a vested interest in helping Mr. Trump, whose Justice Department is seeking dismissal of the mayor’s federal corruption case.

The mayor’s press secretary, Kayla Mamelak Altus, falsely accused The New York Times of implying that Mr. Adams was pushing for a specific casino and having done so before.

“This marks the second casino bid The New York Times has incorrectly implied the mayor is putting his weight behind, so perhaps the paper should make up its mind before falsely implying there’s a third,” she said in a statement.

Bally’s is one of at least 11 contenders that have expressed interest in bidding for one of the three downstate gambling licenses. Several of the other bidders have ties to Mr. Trump.

Steven Cohen, the Mets owner who wants to build a casino next to the team’s stadium in Queens, donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s first inaugural committee. The family of Miriam Adelson, one of Mr. Trump’s biggest supporters, controls Las Vegas Sands, which is bidding to build a casino on Long Island.

But none of the other bids, if successful, would seem to directly benefit Mr. Trump. The casino bids are due in June, with the state saying it will make a decision by the end of the year.

In an interview, Soo Kim, the chairman of Bally’s, described the agreement with the Trump Organization as a “a deferred purchase price mechanism,” and said it was an agreement that he did not come to lightly.

“When they first proposed it, I was like, ‘What the hell?’” said Mr. Kim on Tuesday. “They’re already getting a lot of money for a golf course. What do they think it’s worth? But they know what it’s worth to me and to us and to the Bronx.”

The Trump Organization, Mr. Kim said, agreed to transfer the lease on the condition that it would get more money if the land was approved for a casino.

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, a Democrat whose Bronx district includes the golf course, dismissed the prospect of a $115 million Trump payout as merely “a contractual agreement made by two businesses” and said it would not influence whatever decision he ultimately makes about supporting the casino bid.

“People were just happy to get rid of the name ‘Trump’ from the golf course,” he said. “It was an embarrassment to the community.”

This week, Mr. Benedetto and State Senator Nathalia Fernandez said they had introduced legislation that would enable Bally’s to operate a casino on the golf course, should it win a license. Any such legislation is expected to require a home rule message, a message of support from the New York City Council.

Lincoln Restler, the Brooklyn councilman who chairs the committee that would have to advance that home rule message, said that elected officials were likely to look askance at any deal that would enrich the president’s company.

“I think that a $115 million check to the Trump Organization will be a difficult pill for many New York legislators to swallow,” Mr. Restler said.

The $115 million payout was mentioned in a scathing ruling that a New York State judge issued in the civil fraud case against Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization. In that case, which was brought by Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, the judge imposed a more than $450 million judgment against Mr. Trump, concluding he had fraudulently inflated his net worth to dupe banks into giving him favorable loans.

The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, referred to the golf course deal as giving the Trump Organization a “windfall profit.”

Mr. Trump is appealing Justice Engoron’s ruling.

Ben Protess and Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting.

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New York

Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

Published

2 days ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

“I just thought, please don’t let this be how my life ends. I’m not ready to die. When we landed, it was a very rough landing. Like we landed and the plane jolted back up, and that caught a lot of passengers off guard. Everyone kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then you hear the pilot braking, and it was like just this grinding sound.” “Everybody was shocked everywhere. There was — there’s people screaming. The plane just veered off course. I mean, it was just — it all happened so quickly, but it all felt just like a very dire situation.” “Oh, God. Oh my goodness. That’s crazy.” “People were bleeding from their nose, cuts and scrapes. I saw black eyes, all different types of facial contusions, bruising and bleeding. I was sitting by the exit door, and I opened the exit door. There was a sense of camaraderie amongst the survivors. Nobody was pushing, shoving, ‘I got to get out first.’” “The plane actually tipped back as we were leaving, as people were getting off the plane. That was when the nose kind of fell off the front of the plane, and the whole plane kind of went up to what we’d seen in all the pictures of the plane’s nose in the air.” And there was no slide when we got out. A lot of us were jumping off of the airplane wing to get down. And when I got out and I saw that the front of the plane, how destroyed it was, I just was — I was in shock.” “It was only really when I was outside of the plane, looking back at the plane, and I had seen what had happened to the cockpit, and then just like this sense of dread overcame me, where I was just like, wow, a lot of people might have just been pretty badly hurt.” “I’m grateful to the pilots who were so courageous and brave, and acted swiftly, and they saved our lives. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to come home to my family. I’m forever indebted to them. They’re my heroes.”

New York

Video: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

Published

3 days ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Video: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

new video loaded: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

The two pilots of a Air Canada Express jet were killed after a collision with a Port Authority fire truck on Sunday at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

By Axel Boada and Monika Cvorak

March 23, 2026

New York

How a Family of 3 Lives on $500,000 on the Upper West Side

Published

4 days ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

How a Family of 3 Lives on 0,000 on the Upper West Side

How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.

We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?

Rent is not the largest monthly expense for Anala Gossai and Brendon O’Leary, a couple who live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. That would be child care.

They spend $4,200 each month on day care for their 1-year-old son, Zeno.

“We really liked the center,” Ms. Gossai, 37, said. “Neighbors in our building love it. It’s actually pretty middle of the road for cost. Some were even more expensive.”

The rent for their one-bedroom apartment is $3,900 per month. Space is tight, but the location is priceless.

“We’re right across from Central Park,” she said. “We can walk to the subway and the American Museum of Natural History.”

‘Middle Class’ in Manhattan

Ms. Gossai, a data scientist, and her husband, 38, a software engineer, met in graduate school. Their household income is roughly $500,000 per year. While they make a good living, they try to be frugal and are saving money to buy an apartment.

They moved into their roughly 800-square-foot rental eight years ago when it was just them and their dog, Peabody, a Maltese poodle. Now their son’s crib is steps away from their bed. They installed a curtain between the bed and the crib to keep the light out.

Like many couples, they have discussed leaving the city.

“When we talk about the possibility of moving to the suburbs, we both really dread it,” Mr. O’Leary said. “I don’t like to drive. Anala doesn’t drive. I feel like we’d be stuck. We really value being able to walk everywhere.”

Ms. Gossai is from Toronto, and Mr. O’Leary is from Massachusetts. In New York City, wealth is often viewed in relation to your neighbors, and many of theirs make more money. The Upper West Side has the sixth-highest median income of any neighborhood in the city, according to the N.Y.U. Furman Center.

“I think we’re middle class for this area,” Mr. O’Leary said. “We’re doing OK.”

The couple tries to save about $10,000 each month to put toward an apartment or for an emergency. They prioritize memberships to the Central Park Zoo at $160 per year and the American Museum of Natural History at $180 per year.

Their son likes the museum’s butterflies exhibit and the “Invisible Worlds” light show, which Mr. O’Leary said felt like a “baby rave.”

Ordering Diapers Online

The cost of having a young child is their top expense. But they hope that relief is on the horizon and that Zeno can attend a free prekindergarten program when he turns 4.

For now, they rely on online shopping for all sorts of baby supplies. The family spent roughly $9,000 on purchases over the last year, including formula and diapers. That included about $730 for toys and games.

Ms. Gossai said one of her favorite purchases was a pack of hundreds of cheap stickers.

“They are good bribes to get him into his stroller,” she said. “Six dollars for stickers was extremely worth it.”

They splurge on some items like drop-off laundry service, which costs about $150 a month. It feels like a luxury instead of doing it themselves in the basement.

Keeping track of baby socks “completely broke my mind,” Ms. Gossai said.

Their grocery bills are about $900 per month, mostly spent at Trader Joe’s and Fairway. Mr. O’Leary is in charge of cooking and tries to make dinner at home twice a week.

They spend about $500 per month on eating out and food delivery. A favorite is Jacob’s Pickles, a comfort food restaurant where they order the meatloaf and potatoes.

Saving on Vacations and Transportation

Before Zeno, the couple spent thousands of dollars on vacations to Switzerland and Oregon. Now, trips are mainly to visit family.

Mr. O’Leary takes the subway to work at an entertainment company. Ms. Gossai mostly works from home for a health care company. They rarely spend money on taxis or car services.

“I’ll only take an Uber when I’m going to LaGuardia Airport,” Mr. O’Leary said.

Care for their dog is about $370 per month, including doggie day care, grooming and veterinarian costs. Peabody is getting older and the basket under the family’s stroller doubles as a shuttle for him.

They love their neighborhood and the community of new parents they have met. Still, they dream of having a second bedroom for their son and a second bathroom.

Their kitchen is cramped with no sunlight. So they put a grow light and plants above the refrigerator to brighten the room.

Since they share a room with their son, he often wakes them up around 5 a.m.

“In the sweetest and most adorable way,” Ms. Gossai said.