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President Donald Trump is allegedly trying to push New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa out of the city’s mayoral race in order to help Andrew Cuomo defeat Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, according to The New York Times.
The Times reports that Trump’s advisers have discussed giving Adams, who is running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa positions in the president’s administration in order “to give former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo a better chance of defeating Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, in November’s general election.”
Sliwa said in a statement that he had not been contacted by the Trump administration. A spokesperson for Adams, who was allegedly offered a position in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), told The Guardian that, “He has had no discussions with, nor has he met with, President Donald Trump regarding the mayoral race.”
Cuomo told reporters, “I don’t want him [Trump] involved in anything with my race.”
In June, Queens Assemblymember Mamdani, a democratic socialist, trounced Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, earning 56 percent of the ranked choice vote. Cuomo has not held elected office since he was forced to step down as New York governor in 2021 after several women accused him of sexual harassment. Last year, Cuomo joined the legal team for accused war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Despite Mamdani’s decisive win in the June primary, Cuomo announced that he would stay in the race and run as an independent in November’s general election. A Truthout investigation published last month revealed that billionaires and their companies “have funneled more than $19 million into political action committees (PACs) that support Cuomo or oppose Mamdani and other candidates.”
Mamdani is running on a platform that includes raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers, as well as a rent freeze, free city buses, and universal pre-K.
“Today, we have learned what New Yorkers have long suspected, that Andrew Cuomo is Donald Trump’s choice to be the next mayor of this city,” Mamdani said at a press conference he called in response to the Times story.
Mamdani noted the widespread suspicion that Trump’s Department of Justice dropped corruption charges against Adams in exchange for his cooperation with the president’s anti-immigrant agenda. Last year, Adams was charged with bribery and campaign finance violations. If convicted, he faced up to 45 years in prison.
“We are talking about a mayor who was facing an indictment that was then dropped by this administration to ensure greater collaboration with the immigration directives of this administration now being considered for a job offer,” Mamdani said.
“None of this has to do with New Yorkers,” he continued. “None of it has to do with the welfare of this city. It all has to do with power. It all has to do with the audacity that we have here to believe that we could pick our own mayor, that we have to believe that the most pressing issues are not how to ensure that Donald Trump continues to have an ambassador in City Hall, but that New Yorkers can actually afford the place that they call home.”
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who also ran for mayor and has been campaigning for Mamdani, posted the Times story and called the alleged collaboration between Adams, Trump, and Cuomo “bizarre.”
“Donald Trump & Eric Adams’ teams are reported to be conspiring in a bizarre, corrupt effort to elect Andrew Cuomo as mayor of NYC,” he wrote on X. “Seriously, that’s what this story says. 62 days until we elect @ZohranKMamdani and put this absurd cabal behind us.”
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