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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Eric Adams and Donald Trump’s Curious Alliance

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.23.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The staff writer Eric Lach joins the guest host Andrew Marantz to discuss the alleged quid pro quo between Mayor Eric Adams and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. Plus, why the President keeps inserting himself into New York City politics and what to make of former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s bid for Gracie Mansion. 


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, Eric. Thanks for joining us here.

0:08.6

Hey, Andrew. Nice to see you.

0:10.2

So, officially, Eric Adams is currently the mayor of New York City. Is he actually running the city?

0:17.5

He is running what's left of his administration.

0:22.8

The situation right now is like he's got, you know, half his deputy mayor's leaving, and

0:31.8

he is sort of wedged between the Trump administration, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan,

0:39.9

and a re-election campaign. That's pretty much where he is. Basically, let's start there and sort

0:44.1

of work backwards. Like, we, you know, a couple of years ago, Eric Adams was a Democrat of a big

0:51.2

blue city who was, you know, the head of a sanctuary city who was kind of

0:55.1

would have been seen as part of the Trump resistance. Now it seems like he and Trump have some

1:00.2

sort of deal, I guess. Apparently it has to do with immigration policy and it seems like it has

1:05.8

to do with what I would call an apparent quid pro quo. So how did that, what's the timeline of how that came to be?

1:11.6

So the coming together of Adams and Trump started last year.

1:17.2

And in 2022, tens of thousands of asylum-seeking migrants started to show up in New York City asking for social services. As a result, the shelter

1:30.1

population in the city exploded, and the city found itself paying for all sorts of services

1:37.1

that had not budgeted for. And then Adams spent two years publicly battling with Joe Biden's White House demanding more money for New York

1:48.6

City because he said that immigration was a federal issue and so the city shouldn't have to bear

1:53.4

the burdens of the cost of the migrant crisis on its own. And the Biden White House basically

1:59.7

dismissed him.

2:02.4

And then Adams sort of very publicly broke with Biden, started criticizing Biden's immigration policy and generally being a sort of thorn pain in the ass to President Biden.

2:14.9

Yeah, I saw Adams on Tucker Carlson saying that the Biden administration told him,

2:19.2

just quiet down and be a good Democrat.

...

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