Ken Griffin says Zohran Mamdani video shocked him: ‘It took a moment to digest what I was watching’

Ken Griffin says he had to watch it twice before it fully sank in. When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a social media video on Tax Day filmed from outside Griffin’s $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South — using the Citadel CEO as a prop to promote his new pied-à-terre tax — Griffin said his initial reaction was pure disbelief. “The first time, I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” he told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Tuesday at the Milken Global Conference. “It took a moment to digest what I was watching.” What followed, Griffin said, was not just irritation — but genuine alarm. “What really upset me about the video was the fact that it put me in harm’s way,” Griffin told Eisen. “He seems to have forgotten that the CEO of another American company was assassinated just blocks from where I live in New York.” The reference was unmistakable: the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel. “To put any citizen in harm’s way is just inappropriate for one of our political leaders,” Griffin said. “To turn me into a political puppet was just in poor taste, really poor taste.” Mamdani’s play Mamdani filmed the video on April 15, standing in front of Griffin’s building and announcing what he called a first-of-its-kind pied-à-terre tax — an annual surcharge on residential properties valued over $5 million owned by non-full-time city residents. The proposal is projected to generate at least $500 million. Griffin’s penthouse, which he purchased in 2019 for a record-setting price, became the centerpiece of Mamdani’s pitch. The mayor declared, “When I ran for mayor, I committed to taxing the wealthy. Today, we’re taxing the rich.” Griffin pushed back on the policy itself, too. “The tax, as a tax that discriminates against a narrow group of people, is also disconcerting,”