Gov. Kathy Hochul finds herself in a curious position as the top Democrat in New York who must work with the Trump administration on behalf of New Yorkers, but also hold a hard line on issues like birthright citizenship and congestion pricing.

“There’s a lot of hostile threats coming out of Washington, but we have to be prepared to do what’s right,” Hochul said during an interview on NY1’s “Inside City Hall.”

Just days into a new Donald Trump presidency, Hochul is weighing her options and her words.

Hochul opted against criticizing the president by name in her recent state budget presentation. But she warned her $252 billion spending plan could be jeopardized if Washington cuts funding.

“Elections have consequences. I cannot stand here and say the state of New York is going to backfill all the federal dollars — no state can do that,” Hochul said on Jan. 21, after giving her state budget address in the State Capitol Building in Albany.

She opposes Trump’s plan to upend the nation’s guarantee of birthright citizenship and remove temporary protected status for some undocumented immigrants.

“How do you withdraw something that was legal when they came, then all the sudden say you have no status?” Hochul told NY1.

But also blasted her ally Joe Biden’s border policy.

“Our immigration system is broken. We should not have wide open borders as we’ve had for the last number of years and it’s created a lot of strain in our system here,” she said.

Experts argue New Yorkers have a lot riding on Hochul’s relationship with Trump.

“What’s happening now with the executive orders and what will be occurring with legislation increasingly from Congress are things that will be concrete and specific. So you don’t get an easy out — so in a sense the stakes are higher for her to act in decisive ways and pick her moments,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said

“There are a lot of things that the state needs from the federal government — hundreds of millions of dollars. So it is a delicate dance. For anyone to expect the governor of the state of New York to take on the current president. That would be a fool’s errand,” Roberto Perez, a political consultant at Brown Weinraub, said.

Days after Trump’s election, Hochul revealed the pair spoke on the phone about improving Penn Station and working together on New York issues.

But climate policy goals, planned increases in education and healthcare spending all could be standing in Washington’s line of fire.

“The big risk is if President Trump pulls the plug on congestion pricing because then we go back and forth yet another cycle on that,” Miringoff said.

“Somehow she’s got to figure out a way to put these together in a way that makes her forceful and on the side of the New York voters going into 2026,” he added.

Her measured approach will inevitably be contrasted with her city counterpart, Mayor Eric Adams, who faces a five-count, federal criminal indictment and trial in April and has had nothing critical to say so far about the president.

“I do not blame him at all for taking the posture he’s taking if he’s looking for a pardon,” Perez told NY1.

Adams met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, attended his inauguration and lunched with New York Republicans — sparking speculation about his motivations.

“I think the flirting and dancing with President Trump all point to the fact that Mayor Adams recognizes that his fate lives in the hands of President Trump, whether you agree or not the biggest issue he has for his re-election is this trial,” Perez said.