New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani claimed on Wednesday that threats of the city’s wealthiest residents leaving the city over high taxes were “imagined.” 

Mamdani held a Tax Day public forum with economists Gabriel Zucman and Joseph Stiglitz to discuss his plans to further tax the rich, starting with a new tax on luxury properties valued at $5 million or more.

“For all of the discussion of the imagined exodus that would take place were we to tax the wealthiest New Yorkers by the appropriate amount—I say imagined because before I was a mayor I was a state legislator and I was part of an effort to increase taxes on millionaires at that time—we were told the same thing then—and what we find now is that we have more millionaires today than we did at that time even after having passed that tax,” Mamdani said.

MAMDANI’S ‘PAINFUL’ TAX HIKE THREAT MOCKED BY WASHINGTON POST FOR PROVING ‘SOCIALIST UTOPIA IS EXPENSIVE’

Mamdani acknowledged New York City losing many of its residents in recent years, pointing out that the city lost 200,000 Black residents between 2000 and 2020. However, he claimed that this was an “exodus” of working-class people who can no longer afford to live there.

“And so for all of that conversation about this imagined exodus, we have to reckon with the very real exodus that we are seeing in the city, an exodus of working-class people, an exodus of those who cannot afford to live here and for many who work here who now find their residence in Jersey City or in Connecticut or in Pennsylvania, anywhere else where their dollar can go a little bit further,” Mamdani said.

SOCIALIST NYC MAYOR MAMDANI CLASHES WITH HOCHUL OVER TAX HIKES AS SOME CRITICS WARN OF CATASTROPHE

During the forum, Mamdani also highlighted his past campaign goals for free busing, universal childcare and five city-run grocery stores.

Though Mamdani was able to launch a universal childcare program within his first 100 days in office, he has yet to deliver on his plans for free busing or a city-run grocery store. The first of the proposed grocery stores is currently slated to open in late 2027.

Fox News Digital reached out to the mayor’s office for comment.

DEMOCRAT STRATEGIST WARNS MAMDANI’S BALLOONING NYC BUDGET PLAN GIVES REPUBLICANS A READY-MADE MIDTERM MESSAGE

Mamdani’s comments came in stark contrast to previous ones made by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who encouraged wealthy former state residents to move back and support social programs.

“There are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. OK, cut me the checks. If you want to be supportive — but maybe the first step should be [to] go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home, because our tax has been eroded,” Hochul said last month.

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil sent a memo to his staff Wednesday in response to reports the Public Investment Fund will no longer use its resources for the league.

Sources told Fox News Digital the Saudis will stop funding LIV after the 2026 season.

“Team, (f)ollowing up on my previous message, which I realize may have led to some confusion on where we stand as a business,” O’Neil wrote in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital. 

“I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

“While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before.

“The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure. We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we’ve answered every time with resilience and grace. Now, we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports.”

GOLF ANALYST BRANDEL CHAMBLEE RIPS LIV GOLF AS REPORTS FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT ITS FUTURE: ‘LAME-BRAINED TOUR’

O’Neil then praised LIV golfers for contending at the Masters, noting Tyrell Hatton finished tied for third, and hyping up Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm as the faces of the league.

“To the teams in New York, London, and those on the ground here with me in Mexico: lean into this moment,” O’Neil continued. 

“The noise you hear is simply the sound of a movement that is working. Embrace it. We are pioneers, and while the road isn’t always smooth, the destination is worth every mile. Let’s go out and show the world why LIV Golf is the future of the game. It matters. You mattered. Now, let’s go win.

“Long LIV Golf.”

LIV began in 2022 and has produced two major winners in Brooks Koepka, who has since rejoined the PGA Tour, at the 2023 PGA Championship, and DeChambeau at the 2024 U.S. Open. They are currently playing in Mexico City.

LIV Golf shifted from its 54-hole format, a draw for golfers defecting from the PGA Tour, to 72 beginning this season. Patrick Reed is also set to rejoin the tour.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter

Guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed migrant detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, causing injuries to their heads, shoulders and wrists, according to a lawyer for two detainees.

The guards targeted several detainees at the state-run facility after they complained about a lack of phone access one day earlier this month, lawyer Katherine Blankenship said in a court declaration.

The phones are the primary method for detainees to communicate with family and their legal representation while held at the detention center, but the phones were not functioning.

The guards first started to taunt the detainees as they were in a cell. Blankenship said the guards then became “more aggressive and were yelling and threatening to enter the cage.”

DOJ SUES CONNECTICUT, NEW HAVEN OVER SANCTUARY POLICIES: ‘OPEN DEFIANCE’

One detainee was punched in the face after walking up to a guard. The guards then began beating other detainees in the cell.

Blankenship said one of her clients was punched in the right eye, thrown to the floor and beaten by several guards. She said guards kicked him in the head and injured his shoulder and arm. A guard also put his knee on the detainee’s neck while restraining him, according to the attorney.

Included in the declaration is a photo taken during a video call nearly a week after the beating showing the detainee with a bruised eye.

“The officers beat several people during this incident and broke another detained individual’s wrist,” Blankenship wrote, noting that the detainee whose wrist was broken is not among her clients.

Phone service was restored the following day, although officials failed to provide any explanation as to why it was cut off.

HOCHUL ENDORSES LEGISLATION TO ALLOW NEW YORKERS TO SUE ICE AGENTS: ‘POWER DOES NOT JUSTIFY ABUSE’

Blankenship’s declaration was part of a court filing alleging that state and federal officials have not complied with a federal judge’s preliminary injunction last month ordering the detention center to offer detainees access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored and unrecorded calls with their attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell directed officials to provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people held in the facility.

The judge’s order came after a lawsuit that argued that officials at the facility were violating detainees’ First Amendment rights.

State officials have denied claims of restricting detainees’ access to their attorneys, pointing to security and staffing issues for any cutoffs. Federal officials, who are also defendants in the case, denied that detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated.

Last week, state officials filed a notice saying they intend to appeal the judge’s ruling.

The facility has been slapped with several lawsuits since it was built over the summer.

The detention facility was constructed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to support President Donald Trump’s plan to mass detain and deport migrants. Officials in the Sunshine State also built a second immigration detention center in northern Florida.

During a visit last week to the detention center, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was not given the opportunity to speak with detainees. 

The lawmaker also described conditions at the detention center as “inhumane” and “cruel.”

“The way the detainees are housed is cruel and unnecessary,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.