There they go, Zo!

Billionaire bigwigs Ken Griffin and Marc Rowan are taking thousands of jobs out of the Big Apple and setting their sights elsewhere as a “direct consequence” of Mayor Mamdani’s “tax the rich” antics — stoking fears that a big-money exodus is underway.

Mamdani poked Griffin in a recent social media video that used the hedge fund titan’s recordbreaking $238 million Midtown penthouse as a backdrop to drum up support for a proposed tax on luxury second homes in the city.

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Hedge fund titan Ken Griffin said he’s adding more jobs in Miami as a “direct consequence” of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial video targeting him.AFP via Getty Images
An appalled Griffin first threatened to scrap a $6 billion Park Avenue development for his Citadel hedge fund, then told CNBC on Tuesday that the “creepy” video spurred him to expand his firm’s hub in Florida.

“We will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor’s poor decision here with respect to his posting of that video,” Griffin said.

Griffin’s rich reprisal is exactly the pull-up-the-stakes move that many New Yorker leaders, including Gov. Hochul, have publicly and privately warned Mamdani’s rabble-rousing will inspire.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani boasts about his “pied-à-terre tax” in front of the Citadel founder’s 24,000-square-foot property at 220 Central Park South – which Griffin nabbed for $238 million in 2019, the most expensive home sale in the country.@NYCMayor /X

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Mamdani’s “tax the rich” policies have sparked fears of a wealthy exodus.Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Mamdani may find his desire to stick it to the rich will leave fewer of them to tax in New York City, warned John Ketcham, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

“New York City is losing its competitive edge and Mayor Mamdani makes it far less competitive,” he said.

“Investors and job creators have options and they will go where they’re treated well. Increasingly New York City has treated them inhospitably. New York City leaders have assumed they can’t do business elsewhere, even though we have seen in the last several years a dramatic expansion of the financial sector’s activities in states like Florida and Texas.”

The mayor’s attack on Griffin has also heightened concerns among executives at Apollo Global Management — a $900 billion Wall Street asset manager — that Mamdani is stoking an anti-business atmosphere.

Apollo execs have decided to open a new hub in either Florida or Texas, with 1,000 employees — in line with its headcount in New York.

“The golden goose of New York City is heading South in Spirit Airlines,” joked pro-business lobbyist James “Cadillac” McMahon.

“Without finance jobs Manhattan is a very expensive mall,” said Zilvinas Silenas, president of Empire Center for Public Policy.

Zohran Mamdani’s viral video outside Ken Griffin’s penthouse shocks Vornado CEO: ‘Ugly, unnecessary’

“It’s going to be a lot less money collected. One percent of New York’s taxpayers bring in half of all the income revenue. These finance jobs are why people come to New York. All of the sudden these jobs go away, New York is going to lose some of its luster and some of its spirit.”

Mamdani’s rhetoric risks the loss of 2,700 jobs in the financial industry and $168 million in state and city tax revenue every year, the pro-business group Partnership for New York City estimates.

Apollo paid roughly $1.28 billion in total income taxes during 2025, according to the company.

Citadel executives contended that Griffin, along with the firm’s principals and team members, have paid nearly $2.3 billion in city and state taxes over the past five years.

And Griffin himself has directed $650 million in charitable gifts toward institutions ranging from the Robin Hood Foundation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital for Special Surgery, Success Academy charter schools, MoMA and more.

Citadel’s potential escape from New York mirrors Griffin’s famous falling out with Chicago.

Griffin decamped Citadel’s headquarters from the Windy City in 2022 to Miami over his concerns with crime and dissatisfaction with city and state leaders. He acknowledged the parallels during his CNBC interview.

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The New York Post cover from April 25, 2026.
“I think looking at what Mamdani just did to me, and more broadly is doing to the city of New York, is triggering of the trauma I went through in Chicago,” he said. “Chicago went through a renaissance during most of my 30 years there, and then under the leadership of J.B. Pritzker, Lori Lightfoot, and the current mayor, has just devolved into a state that has lost its way.”

Griffin has been talking up Miami as a potential new Wall Street for years, long before Mamdani’s rise from little-known Assembly member to socialist mayor.

When asked about Griffin’s comments, Mamdani on Wednesday responded with a dodge.

“I want all New Yorkers to succeed — that includes business owners and entrepreneurs who create good-paying jobs, including Ken Griffin,” he said during an unrelated event.

“That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken. It rewards extreme wealth while working people are pushed to the brink. If we want the city to be affordable, we need meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers paying their fair share.”