United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the federal government will not bail out New York City in the event of a financial crisis if the city elects its Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani.

On Wednesday, Bessent reportedly told the nation’s most populous city to “drop dead”, citing a phrase he attributed to former President Gerald Ford in 1975, when the city faced near-bankruptcy.

“It will be the same thing that Gerald Ford said: ‘Drop dead,’” Bessent told New York-born anchor Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business Network, which is based in New York.

Ford never actually made that statement. It originated from a New York tabloid headline at the time.

Bessent added, “I guarantee you — and there are not a lot of things in life that are sure — that New York

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