Trump admin claws back $80M in FEMA migrant funds from NYC, setting up battle with new prez pal Mayor Adams

The feds clawed back more than $80 million in migrant funds directly from New York City’s coffers, blindsiding Big Apple officials Wednesday – and setting up a potential battle between Mayor Eric Adams and his recent benefactor President Trump.

Adams vowed to press the White House to recoup the controversial FEMA payments, which Department of Government Efficiency honcho Elon Musk claimed in an inaccuracy-filled tweet this week had been wasted on “luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.”

“This morning, our office learned about the federal government clawing back more than $80 million in FEMA grants applied for and awarded under the last administration, but not disbursed until last week,” Adams said in a statement.

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“While we conduct an internal investigation into how this occurred, our office has already engaged with the White House about recouping these funds and we’ve requested an emergency meeting with FEMA to try and resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”

City attorneys were also “already exploring various litigation options” to claw the funding back, Adams said.

But the mayor’s pledge didn’t name or appeal directly to Trump — a conspicuous omission that came just days after the Department of Justice ordered prosecutors to drop their federal corruption case against him, in a move even Hizzoner’s allies feared would make him a “hostage” to the new president.

Trump, from the Oval Office, defended seizing the money.

“This is a massive fraud that’s taking place,” Trump claimed.

His statement digressed into complaints about judges, and offered a rationale for pulling the funds that contradicted much of what officials have said about the money.

“And then you have judges that are activists, and they sit there and they say, well, as an example, $59 million going to a little small group in New York City … They sent $59 million to New York City for a hotel for a little — a little bit of nothing. What they’ve done, a hotel that was not luxury, that’s getting luxury rates for migrants, where they’re making a fortune. And we catch them, we catch them. And — but a judge says, ‘Well, even though it may be a fraud, you have to send the money in anyway. Send the money.’ I said, ‘We have money that shouldn’t go because we caught it before we sent out,’ but they want the money to go anyway.”

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The assertion echoed Musk’s tweet Monday that DOGE “discovered” a $59 million FEMA payment to the Big Apple last week that he implied would all go toward housing illegal migrants in luxury hotels.

City Hall officials gently rebutted Musk’s claim, pointing out only $19 million of that would be used to reimburse past expenses for housing migrants in hotels – and that it came from money approved by Congress to help local governments pay for sheltering immigrants. 

The officials couldn’t immediately provide a list of hotels covered by the grant.

The FEMA funds offered $12.50 a night reimbursement for each hotel room, city officials said, adding most of the 150-odd hotels used by the city to house migrants aren’t luxury accommodations.

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The rest of the money would go toward security, food and other services for migrants, officials said.

The sudden withdrawal of FEMA funds from New York City’s accounts unfolded Tuesday and was discovered by city Comptroller Brad Lander the next morning.

Lander quickly shot off a statement accusing Trump and Musk of “highway robbery” – apparently without informing the Adams administration about the revocation.

City Hall officials did not publicly acknowledge the missing funds until after The Post called for comment.

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Trump administration officials later confirmed the claw back, contending they were retrieving taxpayer  money from being used to “pay for hotels for illegal aliens.”

“Secretary [Kristi] Noem has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs.

The total claw back from New York City is actually two separate grants of $58.6 million and $21.9 million, according to city and federal officials.

The payments were made under the Shelter and Services Program that Congress appropriated $650 million toward in 2024 to help pay back local governments, including New York City, for the costs they shouldered for sheltering migrants who flowed over the US-Mexico border.

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The program is actually funded by US Customs and Border Protection, but run jointly by the two agencies, using FEMA’s infrastructure to dole out the grants.

The funds, unlike others handled by FEMA, aren’t disaster relief.

New York City applied for and was awarded the grants last year under the Biden administration as city officials scrambled for federal help to pay for the massive cost of the migrant crisis, which is now $7 billion.

Still, the payment resulted in the firing of four FEMA officials involved in sending over the money.

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Lander, in a hastily organized news conference, railed about the Trump admin taking back money that the feds had already agreed to pay.

“This is the federal government having already allocated, authorized, awarded, invoiced and paid $80.5 million to the City of New York,” he said. “And Elon Musk, with no legal authority, seizing it back from the City of New York, it is highway robbery and the city can’t stand for it.”

How the feds were even able to snatch the money back was unclear to Lander.

“If you had asked me yesterday, ‘Does the federal government have the capability of seizing money back from the City of New York’s bank accounts? I would have said, ‘I’ll have to get back to you,’” he said.

When asked how the federal government has access to pull money from a New York City account, Deputy Comptroller Krista Olson simply told The Post: “Good question.”

Lander, who is running against Adams in the June Democratic mayoral primary, quickly seized the opportunity to put the mayor in the hot seat.

“New York City cannot take this lying down,” he said in a statement.

“I call on the Mayor to immediately pursue legal action to ensure the tens of millions of dollars stolen by Trump and DOGE are rightfully returned. If instead Mayor Adams continues to be President Trump’s pawn, my Office will request to work in partnership with the New York City Law Department to pursue aggressive legal action.”

In his own statement, Adams said city officials asked for an emergency meeting with FEMA and alluded to potential litigation.

The mayor’s carefully worded response was arguably more cautious than his past statements about the Biden administration for not “paying their fair share” for the migrant crisis.

Adams had railed that the $140 million federal funding received from Biden as of late 2023 was so paltry, he claimed it could contribute to sweeping cuts in city services.

He recently said the city’s total tab for the migrant crisis was a whopping $7 billion.

The city had been expecting $237 million total from the feds for the entire crisis, with $30 million of that sum still outstanding — though where that anticipated influx of cash stood was unclear as of Wednesday.

Adams will bring up the $80.5 million claw back during his Thursday sitdown with border czar Tom Homan, officials said.

– Additional reporting by Diana Glebova and Steven Nelson