Eric Adams’s recent meetings with Donald Trump, and a recent interview on rightwing pundit Tucker Carlson’s show, have raised questions about whether New York’s mayor is more focused on obtaining a pardon for criminal charges against him than in effectively leading the city.
Adams, a Democrat who faces a federal indictment for allegedly accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources, met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida shortly before the president-elect took office; went to Trump’s inauguration, rather than attend scheduled events in the city for Martin Luther King Day; and did an interview with Carlson, a former Fox News host who frequently criticizes Democrats and has promoted conspiracy theories about immigration.
Adams not only faces five federal corruption charges but is simultaneously running for re-election against a long list of candidates in the Democratic primary. Many of these candidates say he has put his own interests ahead of the city’s, and have called for him to resign. Adams has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Adams, once a registered Republican, defended his meeting with Trump – who said he would consider pardoning Adams – by saying he did not discuss his legal case and that “those who suggest the mayor of the largest city in the nation shouldn’t meet with the incoming president to discuss our city’s priorities because of inaccurate speculation or because we’re from different parties clearly care more about politics than people”.
Basil Smikle Jr, the former head of the New York state Democratic party, said the “cumulative effect of the coziness that he seems to have with Trump world would signal to a voter that he is looking for something more personal and not so much in the interests of New York”.
US prosecutors charged Adams in September and alleged that before and after taking office, he “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him”.
Many in Adams’s inner circle have also been accused of corruption and indicted.
“If a fraction of the details and facts that are mentioned in the indictment are true, it would be a pretty substantial betrayal of the trust that New Yorkers have placed in him,” said Ben Weinberg, director of public policy for Citizens Union, a good-government group.
Adams has said the Biden administration targeted him because he criticized its immigration policies.
Trump agreed with this assessment and said at a dinner in October that he knows “what it’s like to be persecuted by the [justice department] for speaking out against open borders”.
Trump also said in December that he would “certainly look at” a pardon for Adams.
A few days before Trump took office, Adams visited him at his Florida compound. The mayor’s spokesperson, Fabien Levy, said Adams wanted to “discuss New Yorkers’ priorities” and “looks forward to having a productive conversation with the incoming president on how we can move our city and country forward”.
Adams gave no advance announcement and was accompanied by a longtime adviser assisting in his re-election efforts rather than city officials.
“Usually a meeting between high-ranking officials on policy matters is done with staff and officials around you … you explain to the public, what are you going to do? What are you trying to achieve in the meeting?” said Weinberg.
“This last half-minute meeting and the timing of it, the political circumstances around the indictment that the mayor is under, all raise the question of why that didn’t occur.”
On Martin Luther King Day, Adams canceled scheduled visits to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Convent Avenue Baptist church to attend the inauguration.
Levy, the Adams spokesperson, wrote on X that the Trump administration extended a last-minute invitation and that Adams attended because “America has chosen a new national leader and we must work together to build a safer, stronger, and more affordable New York City”.
That prompted criticism from other Democrats running for mayor and from a strong ally, the Rev Al Sharpton.
“To say you’re not going to raise your eyebrows would be being dishonest,” Sharpton said on MSNBC. “I think this is going to cause a lot of us to say, ‘What is this all about?’”
Smikle, who now works as a political strategist, said the Martin Luther King Day events would have been a good opportunity for Adams to talk to New Yorkers “about the challenges ahead in the Trump administration” and how he plans to “protect the most vulnerable among us”, including undocumented immigrants and students who could be affected by Trump’s plan to close the Department of Education.
Afterwards, when asked about some of Trump’s first moves, such as ending birthright citizenship and issuing pardons for the January 6 rioters, Adams said: “If I do disagree, I will communicate with him directly.
“I don’t want to be part of what feeds the anxiety of going back and forth in this public discourse that we’re seeing,” Adams said.
While building a strong relationship with the president could benefit New York residents, Adams “hasn’t really explained what he has asked for in return for his silence, and so that leaves a lot more questions than answers as to what the benefit of this relationship will be”, Smikle said.
On Tuesday, Adams sat for the interview with Carlson after saying in 2021 that he did not need the support of the pundit, who “perpetuates racist, anti-immigrant propaganda”.
During the interview, Carlson made light of the criminal charges, and Adams again said the federal government targeted him because of his criticism of its immigration policy.
Adams also said that people tell him he left the Democratic party. He said he rejects that, and said: “No. The party left me, and it left working-class people.”
Most New York City residents do not have a favorable view of Adams.
Only 6% of Democrats said Adams was their favorite mayoral candidate, which meant he tied for sixth place, according to a poll reported by Politico before his activities in inauguration week. The former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who reportedly is considering entering the race, led the pack with 32%.
Adams’s trial is scheduled to begin in April.
“He needs to show that he can govern effectively, that he can perform his duties as a mayor,” Weinberg said. “We will see how he handles that when he needs to be on trial every day.”
