Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins ripped Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s progressive agenda on Tuesday, warning that New York’s leaders are “beginning to speak the language of control rather than of freedom.”
President Trump’s Wall Street cop did not name the democratic socialist mayor in his keynote address, but left little doubt about his target as he framed the city’s direction as a betrayal of the principles that built American capitalism as the country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday this weekend.
“Just step outside, where leaders entrusted to govern this great city that built American commerce are beginning to speak the language of control rather than of freedom — to deliver on campaign promises that would undermine the very foundation that has made this nation great,” Atkins told a meeting of the Economic Club of New York.
He cited the president’s own words on communism, quoting Trump as warning that such systems may seem appealing at first “but, in the end … great violence proceeds at levels never seen before, and the entity dissolves into poverty, squalor, and crime.”
The comments came after three hard-left congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani won their primaries last week.
Atkins waded into the New York political debate at a time when some financial firms are considering relocating jobs out of Manhattan in a bid to escape the hard-left mayor’s tax-and-spend agenda.
Mamdani, who took office in January and once advocated defunding the police, has pushed a far-left agenda since his inauguration — including city-run grocery stores, a rent freeze for about 1 million apartments and higher taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents and corporations.
The polices have drawn criticism from New York power players such as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Partnership for New York City CEO Steven Fulop.
Atkins’ Tuesday broadside marked a rare foray into city politics for an SEC chairman — whose jurisdiction runs to Wall Street disclosure and market integrity, not a mayor’s housing or tax plans — although he was a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s “woke” capitalism and DEI efforts.
Declaring an end to the “regulation by enforcement” tactics of recent years, Atkins announced a sweeping, top-to-bottom review of the agency’s internal enforcement processes — a massive undertaking he noted has occurred only once before in the SEC’s history.
“Rather than focusing on volume and record-setting penalties … we are redirecting resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm,” Atkins said, signaling a sharp pivot away from technical infractions and toward severe fraud, market manipulation and abuses of trust.
The former corporate lawyer pointed to explosive market data as proof that slashing federal red tape works. Initial submissions for firm-commitment IPOs skyrocketed 70% between January and early June compared to the same period in 2024.
That momentum peaked this month when a single corporate offering hauled in $85.7 billion—a staggering sum that eclipses the total capital raised by the entire U.S. IPO market in both 2024 and 2025 combined, Atkins said.
“We are doing what our Founders had faith in us to do: clearing and pruning the overgrowth — not to weaken the framework, but to let it bear fruit again,” he added.
The SEC was created in 1934, five years after the 1929 stock market crash, with the aim of creating greater transparency for investors so they can make smarter decisions about which shares they buy or sell.
The Post has approached City Hall for comment.
