Trucking company will not stop servicing New York after Mamdani win
- Published on November 20, 2025 at 21:21
- Updated on November 20, 2025 at 21:29
- 2 min read
- By Mia DOUGLAS, AFP USA
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Social media users critical of Zohran Mamdani's historic New York City mayoral win are sharing posts claiming trucking giant Swift Transportation will no longer provide service through America's largest city in protest of the leftist mayor-elect's policies. However, the company publicly stated it will continue its activities in the area and the claims stemmed from satirical content.
"BREAKING: SWIFT TRANSPORTATION JUST DROPPED THE HAMMER ON NYC! The nation's BIGGEST trucking giant says NO MORE ROUTES into the Five Boroughs after radical Zohran Mamdani takes over," reads a November 10, 2025 X post.
Similar posts about the trucking company spread across X and Facebook, some of them targeting the mayor-elect's plans, claiming he would raise the cost of tolls and permits for all commercial vehicles.
A high voter turnout drove the democratic socialist candidate to victory over opponent and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in November.
Nevertheless, Mamdani faced fierce attacks on his policies and his Muslim heritage from business elites and conservative commentators throughout the mayoral race. His campaign and victory ignited a plethora of hateful, Islamophobic comments and false narratives about his political and personal life.
Mamdani's platform (archived here) mentions changing regulations for delivery apps, a controversial plan for free bus fare and a possible community safety division -- but does not specifically address tolls and commercial vehicle permits.
Through keyword searches on Google, AFP could not find credible media sources or official statements made by Swift Transportation confirming the claims from social media users.
Instead, those searches revealed that the claims originated with a network of parody websites and social media pages called America's Last Line of Defense (archived here).
Previous AFP reporting revealed America's Last Line of Defense sites publish false stories and hoaxes which are often mistaken for real news.
AFP reached out to Swift Transportation for comment but no response was forthcoming.
In a statement to Newsguard's Reality Check newsletter, the trucking giant confirmed that the claim was of satirical nature and that it had no part in originating it.
"We want to make it clear that Swift Transportation has no plans to alter our operations or business model in New York City," they told the disinformation watchdog.
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation around Mamdani here.
This story was refiled to update metadataNovember 20, 2025 This story was refiled to update metadata
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