Matthew Haag

The new forecast sees 12.1 million international travelers, a 17 percent drop from earlier 2025 projections.

Last year, tourists spent $51 billion in New York City — with about half by foreign travelers. Spending this year is now forecast to decline by $4 billion.

New York City Predicted Record Tourism. Then Came Trump.

New York City is expected to welcome 400,000 fewer tourists this year than it did in 2024, a decline primarily driven by negative sentiment toward the United States among foreign travelers who have reconsidered their vacations.

Some former university officials are quietly wondering whether the ultimately unsuccessful property transaction sowed the seeds of Mr. Trump’s current focus on Columbia.

Trump Raged at Columbia Over $400 Million Decades Ago. Sound Familiar? A quarter century ago, the university was looking to expand. It considered, and rejected, property owned by Donald Trump. He did not forget it.

Donald Trump was demanding $400 million from Columbia University.

When he did not get his way, he stormed out of a meeting with university trustees and later publicly castigated the university president as “a dummy” and “a total moron.”

That drama dates back 25 years.