Tuesday,
February 11, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 24
AMNY: Mayor Eric Adams’ Democratic primary challengers slammed him on Monday over a report that he instructed top city officials not to criticize Republican President Donald Trump and not to interfere with federal immigration enforcement actions at city facilities.
One of those challengers, city Comptroller Brad Lander, went so far as to suggest that Hizzoner had effectively instructed city workers to assist in a push to win Trump’s help in dismissing his federal corruption charges.
The comptroller’s Feb. 10 comments came in rapid response to a report from the news site THE CITY that Adams ordered his top deputies and commissioners to lay off Trump, including on social media platforms, in an hour-long meeting on Monday morning. He reportedly warned that crossing the president could endanger the city’s access to vital federal funding.
“Today Eric Adams instructed New York City employees from top to bottom to aid and abet his efforts to win a pardon from Donald Trump,” Lander told reporters during a Feb. 10 afternoon news conference outside the city’s Municipal Building.
“This morning in this very building, he reportedly gathered together his senior officials, commissioners, deputy mayors, to instruct them not to criticize Donald Trump, even though Trump is making efforts to cut off the funding that the agencies those commissioners supervise rely on every single day,” he added, referring to Trump’s recent moves to freeze vast amounts of federal funding.
Another mayoral candidate, Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, took things a step further. He called for an “immediate investigation” into whether Adams has “cut any kind of deal” with Trump’s administration that involves breaking city law in exchange for help with his legal troubles.
“Eric Adams has narrowed the focus of city government to a singular goal: keeping himself out of prison,” Mamdani said in a statement. “He appears willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve it.”
