‘It’s Crazy’: Trump Weighs in on NYC’s Wood- and Coal-Fired Pizza Oven Crackdown

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the crowd during a campaign event in Pickens, South Carolina, on July 1, 2023. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacted to the proposed emission-cutting rules targeting New York City’s pizzerias using coal- and wood-fired pizza ovens.

“Even now, they want to take away the pizza ovens. We have the greatest pizza parlors in the world. They want to stop that in New York,” Trump said in an interview on 77 WABC, which aired on July 2.

“New York has enough problems. But they now, actually, they’re coming after the pizza parlors. Can you believe it? And [city officials are] saying make it differently and we’re gonna give you different ovens. We’re gonna put all sorts of restrictions,” he continued. “And one of the guys said you can’t make pizza that way. So it’s crazy what’s going on, but it is what it is. We’re gonna straighten it out.”

Last month, New York City drafted a rule requiring pizza operators with coal- and wood-fired ovens to reduce carbon emissions by up to 75 percent.

Eateries with such types of stoves installed prior to May 2016 would have to have emission control devices under the new regulation from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

City officials confirmed the proposed rules, saying emissions from these types of ovens pollute the air.

“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” DEP’s spokesperson Ted Timbers said in a statement to New York Post. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”

People walk outside the Brooklyn pizzeria Grimaldi's, which makes coal oven pizzas, in New York City on June 26, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The proposed rules come after New York became the first state in the United States to ban natural gas stoves in May. The rules apply to most new buildings starting in 2026, with the only exemptions being hospitals and manufacturing facilities.

The DEP’s new regulation (pdf) will require restaurants having such ovens to hire a government-approved architect or engineer “to assess the feasibility of installing emission controls on the cook stove to achieve a 75% reduction in particulate emissions.”

If the assessment determines that a reduction of 75 percent or above cannot be achieved or that emission control devices cannot be installed, “the assessment must identify any emission controls that could provide a reduction of at least 25% or an explanation for why no emission controls can be installed.”

The proposed rule by NYC officials has already drawn criticism. Some questioned how regulating less than 100 restaurants would significantly reduce carbon emissions.

“This is utter bs. It won’t make a difference to climate change,” billionaire Elon Musk said in a June 26 post on Twitter.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also weighed in on the proposal. “They just want to control,” he told Fox News’s Jesse Watters while they shared a pizza in a New York restaurant using the coal-fired stoves.

“You have an itch on the left. They want to control behavior,“ DeSantis said. ”We saw the same thing with COVID. A lot of that wasn’t about your health. It’s that they wanted to control your behavior. They just don’t want people to be happy and make their own decisions.”

‘Destroying Every Small Business’

The rule led to a protest at New York City Hall on June 26.

“Give us pizza or give us death!” artist and activist Scott LoBaido said while throwing pizza slices over the gate, according to a video posted on his Twitter account.

“Destroying every small business, that’s what this city keeps doing,” LoBaido chanted. “Can’t have a small business? Can’t have pizza? New York City is nothing without pizza.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference on gun violence at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York City on June 26, 2023. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the proposal.

“We don’t want to hurt businesses in the city, and we don’t want to hurt the environment,” Adams told reporters at a press conference on June 28. “Every toxic entity that we remove from our air is adding up to the overall desire to deal with shrinking our carbon footprint,” he said.

“Let the public weigh in, and then we could have a conversation if we’re going to move forward or not,” the Democratic mayor said.

“The public can weigh in without throwing pizza over my gate. They could have delivered me the pie and allowed me to eat the pie, and sat in the COW and have a conversation with me.”

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.