Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani talking with folks in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2025.
Picture by Adam Daly
Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani left open the chance Thursday of reversing a few of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ govt orders, together with the latest barring metropolis companies and pension funds from boycotting or divesting from Israel-linked entities.
Mayor Adams signed an order on Wednesday barring metropolis companies and pension funds from boycotting or divesting from entities tied to Israel. The transfer adopted his latest journey to New Orleans for the Combatting Antisemitism Motion convention and got here a month after he visited Israel.
Talking on the Staten Island Zoo on Thursday, Adams defended the measure, stating that the town ought to be free to spend money on establishments that advance science and enhance the standard of life. “Politics should not get in the way,” he mentioned. “We have to stop believing that we are on an island; no, we are all connected.”
Adams dismissed ideas that he was attempting to undermine his successor.
On Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams dismissed ideas that he was attempting to undermine his successor, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.Ed Reed/Mayoral Pictures Workplace
“I’m not trying to overshadow him,” he mentioned of Mamdani. “I’m just trying to finish up my last twenty-something days. I want the mayor to succeed, but I’m not going to disappear.”
Adams famous that Mamdani may have the ability to make his personal selections as soon as in workplace. “If the incoming administration wants to reverse them, that is on their watch,” he mentioned.
Mamdani, who has been sharply vital of the Israeli authorities and beforehand supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion, didn’t rule out revoking the orders on Thursday.
“The mayor is free to issue as many executive orders as he’d like with the less than 30 days he has in office,” he mentioned. “And then we will be taking a look at every single one once we enter City Hall.”
The problem of funding in Israeli bonds grew to become a flashpoint through the latest election season, with incoming Comptroller Mark Levine pledging to reinvest tens of millions of {dollars} in Israeli bonds, reversing outgoing Comptroller Brad Lander’s determination to let the long-standing investments lapse.
Mamdani says would ‘let the mayor speak for himself’
At Thursday’s press convention, Mamdani and members of his transition crew supplied scorching chocolate to supporters who lined up extra for an opportunity to seize a selfie with the brand new mayor than a heat libation.
Mamdani returned repeatedly to housing and affordability through the occasion, framing them as central pillars of his incoming administration.
He reaffirmed his pledge to freeze hire for greater than 2 million rent-stabilized tenants, stating that residents have confronted will increase of over 12% lately.
“Stability is the reason many New Yorkers can stay in their homes,” he mentioned.
The mayor-elect mentioned he stays optimistic about his potential to ship a hire freeze, telling reporters that in his latest assembly with Mayor Adams, experiences that Hizzoner has been attempting to pack the Lease Pointers Board earlier than leaving workplace to stymie Mamdani’s plans didn’t come up.
On policing, Mamdani mentioned he helps sustaining the NYPD’s budgeted headcount at about 35,000 officers and famous the division has struggled to succeed in that quantity.
“I think if we’re struggling to even higher up to that amount, I think ideas of extending it beyond that are not reckoning with the reality,” he mentioned.
He declined to touch upon whether or not Adams’ late-term determination so as to add 5,000 uniformed officers to the pressure by 2029 was meant to complicate the transition.
When requested once more whether or not he believes the mayor is attempting to “sandbag” him earlier than he enters workplace, Mamdani mentioned he “would let the mayor speak for himself.”
