Reza Pahlavi on Trump, Iran and whether the regime will ever fall

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DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 44

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has made questioning the state’s commitment to green energy a key plank of his gubernatorial platform.

Not so long ago, he had an entirely different focus. Back in 2017, the Republican served as a green energy company executive who was seeking a multibillion dollar federal contract to build a border wall comprised of solar panels.

“The best thing about it is we could sell the energy to Mexico,” Blakeman said at the time during an appearance on Fox News. “So in fact, they would be paying for the wall. It’s a win, win, win.”

Blakeman created Sustainable Technology LLC soon after President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration and quickly began promoting the idea of having the government pay a private company to build the promised wall along the Mexican border.

His pitch? The months-old company would be the perfect vehicle to manage the massive construction project thanks to its unique steel mesh design: “You can see through it,” Blakeman said of his 30-foot tall wall. “There’s no graffiti that can be put on it.”

The plan also involved the feds guaranteeing the bonds needed to fund Blakeman’s barrier building. The company, his thinking went, would then sell around $120 million of energy annually and that would cover “between a third and a half of the price.”

Trump wound up briefly flirting with the idea of a solar wall. “The rumor is, he saw us on [Fox News] and he saw our design and he started talking about it as a viable idea. I don’t know that to be a fact, but that is the rumor,” Blakeman said on Fox Business.

“Solar wall, panels, beautiful,” Trump said at a rally 10 days later. “Pretty good imagination, right? My idea,” he said while pointing to himself.

These days, Blakeman is a much less aggressive proponent of solar power — at least in the state he’s hoping to govern.

“Our carbon footprint is miniscule compared to the rest of the world, here in New York state,” he said in Albany last week. “When you look at the cost-benefit analysis, you don’t get the return from green energy.”

Long Island environmentalists say it’s “bizarre” to hear Blakeman’s attacks on solar power after a tenure in town and county government when he was largely silent on the issue.

“There are solar panels all across the county he serves,” Citizens Campaign for the Environment’s Adrienne Esposito said. “Thirty years ago, we were working with groups across Long Island to get 1,000 homes to have solar roofs. Today, it’s like one out of every 10 homes has solar panels. So its success is growing and it’s been widely embraced by members of the public and businesses.”

In a visit to Schoharie County last month, Blakeman criticized state efforts to install solar panels in rural neighborhoods.

“Here in New York, it doesn’t make any sense,” he said, pointing to the fact that the panels are occasionally covered in snow. “This is a scam.”

Still, he doesn’t oppose it everywhere — and specifically pointed to a “beautiful state” on the border.

“I’m a big proponent of solar energy. I think it’s great in Arizona,” Blakeman said in Schoharie. “When you have 350 days a year of sunshine and the mean average temperature’s about 80 degrees all year long, yeah, it makes sense there.” — Bill Mahoney

From the Capitol

TAXING TIMES: New York lawmakers are weighing a statewide tax on cash real estate purchases, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office confirmed.

It’s not clear how the tax would be structured or what dollar amount would trigger it. The discussion is being held as state officials are poised to grant a similar tax for New York City.

The proposal was panned by the Real Estate Board of New York.

“New Yorkers are already the most heavily taxed residents in the country, and the City’s budget issues will not be solved by more taxes,” said the group’s president, James Whelan. “On the back of $500 million in a new second-home tax, putting even more costs on home buyers and sellers will further discourage transactions and threaten existing revenue collected by the State, City, and MTA.”

Read more from Blue Light News Pro’s Nick Reisman

STICKER SHOCK: Democratic socialist congressional candidate Chuck Park seems to be a fan of the work of someone else running for Congress: upstate GOP contender Anthony Constantino.

Park, the lefty challenger for Rep. Grace Meng’s Queens seat, has spent $3,180 — across 15 disbursements — on campaign materials from Sticker Mule, the sprawling sticker and printing business owned by Constantino. The irreverent Republican is locked in his own primary battle with Assemblymember Robert Smullen for Rep. Elise Stefanik’s seat.

Constantino is a rapper, former boxer and massive pro-Trump sign owner who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

When Playbook asked Park if he had a comment on his campaign’s Sticker Mule spending habits, he attacked his opponent and the support she receives from a pro-Israel PAC.

“My opponent is taking hundreds of thousands in donations from AIPAC and weapons makers, but we can talk about where I buy stickers for volunteers,” Park said. “I’d be happy to compare my campaign’s finances with Rep. Meng’s at a debate.”

Meng’s campaign declined to respond to Park’s attack.

Financial records related to Park’s run for Congress — or lack thereof — also made headlines today for a different reason. City & State reported this morning that Park is four months late on filing his personal financial disclosure form. — Jason Beeferman

PIED-A-RETURN: Democratic state lawmakers aren’t finished discussing an annual surcharge on luxury second homes outside of New York City.

The statewide proposal, initially championed by Albany state Sen. Pat Fahy, was excised from state budget talks, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters this week.

But Assembly Democrats were told recently in a closed-door meeting that the matter may resurface next year after it’s reviewed by state tax officials, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversation.

Read more from Blue Light News Pro’s Nick Reisman

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

SLEEPY SCHLOSSBERG: Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg spent the day defending himself after The New York Times published a deep dive into his campaign’s internal operations.

The paper reported that Schlossberg’s campaign has experienced extremely high turnover — something we’ve covered at length in this newsletter — and that Schlossberg opted to take a nap or not show up during key campaign calls, the Times reported.

Schlossberg also pulled out of a Working Families Party candidate interview in January and at least one candidate debate.

In response to the piece, Schlossberg fired off posts on X in an apparent attempt to defend himself. In one, he posted a photo of himself where he appears to be sleeping. “Needed a quick nap !!” he said.

Schlossberg went on CNN today too, telling the network’s host Dana Bash: “Once you’re declared the frontrunner, and early voting starts in less than a month, everyone’s got something to say,” he said. “People are trying to figure out how our campaign has been so successful. — Jason Beeferman

IN OTHER NEWS

— ‘BETTER WHEN DEAD’: Congressional candidate Alex Bores’ father wished death on Zionists and justified the bombing of a child in a screed of online posts. (Jewish Insider)

— GUESSING GAME: Inconsistent market valuations for luxury New York City homes are muddying efforts to determine which properties will be targeted under Hochul’s proposed second-homes tax. (The New York Times)

— BIG PRICETAG: Erie County is directing most of its $29 million surplus to a $21 million civil rights settlement, and the county attorney is waving off questions from lawmakers. (Buffalo News)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry wants to be a kingmaker. But his efforts to elevate Rep. Julia Letlow’s Senate campaign is irritating other Republicans in the state.

The first-term GOP governor has become a central figure in President Donald Trump’s revenge tour, working to boost Letlow to take down Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is viewed by MAGA supporters as insufficiently loyal to the president. Landry has publicly endorsed her and dispatched his chief of staff to advise her campaign. Behind the scenes, he’s been urging major donors to financially support Letlow, according to six people familiar with his pressure campaign.

But his aggressive efforts are annoying Louisiana Republicans, who see him as overstepping to prop up a candidate who is struggling to dominate as the front-runner, given her relatively low name ID and the rise of another MAGA candidate: State Treasurer John Fleming.

Nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers, strategists and party leaders said in interviews that they’ve long been frustrated by his efforts to strong-arm the party over his legislative priorities and see the Senate race as the latest salvo.

“We’re in some crazy territory where there are yes men all around the governor, and they don’t do anything he doesn’t want them to do, and they do everything he wants them to do,” said Kelby Daigle, St. Martin GOP parish chair, who supports Cassidy.

One prominent Louisiana businessperson, granted anonymity to speak freely, said Landry had asked dozens of executives on a conference call earlier this year to donate to Letlow. The person, a Cassidy supporter, promptly hung up.

“Governor Landry has gone all-in on Letlow and is pot committed at this point,” said a Louisiana Republican strategist, granted anonymity to speak freely. “It’s a gamble that could pay off big or drain his political capital.”

The May 16 primary is likely headed to a run-off, and any combination of candidates may qualify. Polling shows Letlow with a slight lead over Fleming, with Cassidy in third.

Getting Letlow to the finish line would be a huge boost for Landry in the eyes of the White House, which has set its sights on ousting Cassidy, who angered the MAGA base with his 2021 impeachment vote against the president. Still, the governor may not be the most compelling messenger himself: He’s facing sinking approval ratings in Louisiana, dropping to 43 percent in March, down from 58 percent the prior year. And his reputation as a highly transactional governor is exhausting other Republican leaders.

“All this is him thinking that he can rig certain outcomes as a toady for the President,” said another GOP operative, who is unaffiliated with any of the Senate campaigns. The problem for Landry, the Republican said, is “people in Louisiana are fiercely independent. They don’t want to be told what to do.”

Landry and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

“This narrative is absurd,” said Katherine Thordahl, Letlow campaign spokesperson. “Governor Landry is a friend and an ally, but he does not run Congresswoman Julia Letlow’s campaign. This is yet another desperate attempt by Rep. Letlow’s opponents to muddy the waters because they are losing this race.”

Letlow was first elected to the House to fill the seat of her former husband, who died from Covid in 2020, days before being sworn in. She’s the first woman to serve in Congress in Louisiana. And she has earned the backing of both Trump and the Make America Healthy Again movement, whose PAC has pledged $1 million in support, despite Cassidy’s attempts to paint her as inadequately conservative for previously supporting diversity initiatives in higher education.

Her strongest supporter is Landry, a close ally of the White House who has moved further onto the national stage since becoming governor in 2024. Trump named him special envoy to Greenland last year, and he was one of the first Republican governors to welcome federal agents into their states when the U.S. Border Patrol was dispatched to New Orleans.

But in Louisiana, Republicans say Landry has created a culture of fear, with frequent comparisons to Huey Long, the former governor and populist political boss. Few are willing to speak out against him. “Often people in his own party get punished more than the Democrats,” said state Rep. Aimee Freeman, a Democrat.

Landry is known to bulldoze Republicans in the state legislature to get his priorities through — and readily punish detractors by wielding his line-item veto. Last year, he killed 16 spending projects in districts held by GOP lawmakers who voted against his top legislative priority.

In another display of power, he chose to delay the state’s House races from May 16 to mid-July following the Supreme Court’s rejection of Louisiana’s congressional map, sending the election system into chaos.

“This is unchecked power,” said Daigle, the GOP parish chair, of Landry’s decision to suspend House elections, which occurred after more than 42,000 ballots were cast. “We are in what I would say is some dangerous territory here, constitutionally speaking.”

Landry’s GOP detractors in the state say the Senate race is just another example of Landry sharply wielding his bully pulpit, from his push to get big donors to back Letlow to blasting Cassidy at any opportunity. 

Landry was behind the decision in 2024 to change the state’s electoral system, which used to combine all candidates into a single primary that any voter could participate in. The state now uses closed partisan primaries, which was seen as laying the groundwork for defeating Cassidy, given his unpopularity with the base. Cassidy must now win over those voters, who turn out in droves in primaries, without being able to rely on votes from Democrats and others who have padded his numbers in the past.

Cassidy’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Letlow could use the boost: Her war chest amounts to less than a quarter of Cassidy’s cash on hand. But her opponents have seized on Landry’s involvement. Cassidy filed an FEC complaint accusing Landry’s top political fundraiser of campaign finance violations while approaching donors on behalf of Letlow. And Fleming has accused Landry of being behind millions in negative advertisements going after his record on immigration and opposition to carbon sequestration, an issue that he has campaigned heavily on. Landry and Courtney Guastella, his top fundraiser, have not addressed the allegations publicly and didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Fleming, in an interview, said that voters “are just not buying” the attacks against him, citing his standing in the race. He and Landry have clashed over his Senate run, and Fleming has accused the governor of blocking his attempts to reach out to the White House to speak with Trump about his campaign.

Fleming has also accused the Letlow campaign of dangling a job with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get him out of the race. The Letlow campaign has denied that allegation.

“So it just goes to show you really how desperate they are to try to get her elected,” he said.

And Landry maintains some defenders in the Louisiana GOP. State Sen. Alan Seabaugh said he doesn’t begrudge Landry for wielding his influence over the party to affect the outcome of the Senate race — or to veto bills as he pleases.

“He’s the governor. That is his authority,” he said. “Why Letlow? He desperately doesn’t want Bill Cassidy to get reelected.”

Kelsey Brugger contributed reporting.