Democratic Mayor Eric Adams has spent most of a 12 months cultivating a pleasant relationship with Republican President Donald Trump.
The alliance possible helped Adams escape felony corruption expenses earlier this 12 months, however has in any other case been an albatross round his neck as he seeks reelection in a predominantly Democratic metropolis the place Trump continues to be broadly unpopular.
Nevertheless, the Trump Justice Division’s latest choice to sue town, and Adams, over its sanctuary legal guidelines and Hizzoner’s transfer calling on the feds to research coniditions inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lockup inside 26 Federal Plaza sign that their relationship could also be souring.
Creating distance with Trump might help Adams in his steep uphill quest in opposition to Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani — a democratic socialist Queens Meeting member — to safe one other 4 years in Metropolis Corridor. Mamdani, in addition to Adams’ different opponents, have slammed the mayor’s blanket refusal to criticize Trump or his insurance policies, whereas working with the federal administration on its immigration crackdown.
“Adams is trying to distance himself from Trump by calling for a probe into conditions inside Federal Plaza, while Trump is suing the city over sanctuary laws,” mentioned political strategist Ken Frydman. “That should help Adams on election day.”
Hank Sheinkopf, one other veteran Democratic advisor, echoed Frydman’s views.
“Trump has an 85-plus percent negative or thereabouts in New York City, anything that removes Adams from Trump helps him,” Sheinkopf mentioned. “Adams has made a conscious decision to get away from him, obviously. Is that something the president likes? Probably not.”
Adams, who’s working as an impartial, is dealing with a area that additionally consists of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and lawyer Jim Walden. Cuomo and Walden are each working as independents.
How tensions constructed between Adams and Trump
Eric Adams, mayor of New York, heart, in the course of the sixtieth presidential inauguration in Emancipation Corridor of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.Al Drago/Pool by way of REUTERS
The mayor got here into the crosshairs of the Trump administration final week, when the DOJ filed a sweeping lawsuit in opposition to him and town general, in search of to overturn its sanctuary legal guidelines. Within the swimsuit, DOJ attorneys allege that New York’s sanctuary legal guidelines are unconstitutional and “designed to impede” the federal authorities’s enforcement of its immigration statutes.
The motion adopted an off-duty Customs and Border Safety agent getting shot, allegedly by two undocumented migrants with felony data, on July 19, in accordance with police.
Adams responded to the swimsuit by insisting it’s nothing new as a result of his administration has already been aggressively preventing Trump’s in court docket, pointing to a lawsuit town filed in opposition to the Trump administration to recoup $80 million in migrant funding that it clawed again earlier this 12 months. He has defended elements of metropolis sanctuary protections, whereas assailing different features of the legal guidelines as limiting his capacity to collaborate with the feds on felony probes.
“The narrative is that we’re just rolling over,” Adams mentioned throughout a Friday interview on Fox5.
The mayor mentioned that whereas he would commend Trump on the areas the place they agreed, “In those areas that we disagree, we’re going to fight on behalf of the city of New York, such as the $80 million clawback that we experienced. So many people want to show that no matter what happens, the mayor is doing such and such. That’s just not true.”
The day earlier than the DOJ swimsuit, Adams’ workplace despatched a letter to the U.S. Normal Providers Administration, which owns 26 Federal Plaza, requesting that it examine ICE’s holding space on the constructing’s tenth flooring. The missive got here after a video taken inside a holding room confirmed migrant males being held in cramped and probably unsafe circumstances.
Too late to vary?
Mayor Eric Adams insisted in April that President Trump is “someone that’s finally listening” to him on combating town’s migrant disaster, citing their heat relationship for example of how he believes it is benefiting the Huge Apple.REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Picture
Nevertheless, one Democratic strategist — who requested to stay nameless for this story in order that he might opine freely on the matter — mentioned that whereas Adams might use each situations to distance himself from Trump, it’s possible too late for that tactic to fly with voters.
“I can see a world where Adams tries to turn this into his moment of winning back Democrats and showing that he’s a good Democrat,” the strategist mentioned. “But Democratic voters just don’t trust him anymore. So as much as he will try to message on ‘Trump’s coming after me,’ or ‘I’m standing up to Trump,’ he’s just lost all ability to be credible in that.”
Adams started warming as much as Trump throughout final 12 months’s presidential election, doing so in earnest after he was indicted on federal corruption expenses. The mayor then vowed to “work and not war” with Trump, met with him privately at his Palm Seashore golf course shortly earlier than he was sworn in, and raced to Washington, D.C., on the final minute to attend his inauguration.
Trump has been fairly complimentary of Adams, even describing him as a “very good person” earlier this month.
The connection appeared to repay for Adams when Trump’s DOJ filed a movement to dismiss his felony case in February, which a federal decide ultimately granted in early April. Many have alleged that Adams exchanged his cooperation with Trump’s immigration crackdown for the dismissal, accusations he denies.
The Democratic strategist mentioned Adams’ corruption scandals and all of that baggage will make it very troublesome for him to reestablish belief with Democratic voters.
“It’s a pattern of lacking credibility, there’s no trust left among the Democratic Primary voter base in the city for him,” they mentioned. “There’s just nothing I think he could do to turn it around.”
