Election interference in a local mayoral race? Check.
Advisers to President Trump have discussed the possibility of giving Mayor Eric Adams of New York City a position in the administration as a way to clear the field in November’s mayoral election and damage the chances of the Democratic front-runner, Zohran Mamdani, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have also involved finding a possible place in the administration for the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa. The goal, the people said, would be to give former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo a better chance of defeating Mr. Mamdani in November’s general election. The discussions within Mr. Trump’s orbit about making a potentially audacious intervention date back weeks — and it is unclear if they will ultimately amount to anything. But the topic has taken on added urgency in New York in recent days as an already chaotic race steams into the last stretch of the campaign season.
Overlapping conversations have been playing out among some of the city’s biggest real estate executives and among allies of Mr. Cuomo, 67, a moderate Democrat who has
known Mr. Trump for more than 40 years. Mr. Cuomo is running as a third-party candidate after badly losing June’s Democratic primary to Mr. Mamdani. Those New Yorkers have been frantically searching for any way to halt the rise of the assemblyman, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who they fear would sour the city’s business climate, and have discussed potentially offering the mayor public or private sector jobs to encourage him to drop out. John Catsimatidis, a billionaire grocery and oil magnate in New York, said in an interview that he had spoken with Mr. Trump about the race on Sunday and expected the shape of the contest could change in the coming days. “He’s very concerned,” Mr. Catsimatidis said of the president. “How do they say it, this is for all the tea in China. This is serious.” Any move by the Trump administration could be explosive in a deeply Democratic city like New York, where the president remains unpopular.
Most senior Republicans in Washington like the idea of a Mamdani victory, seeing him as a useful foil with which to paint the entire Democratic Party, in what is shaping up to be a rocky midterms climate. But Mr. Trump is not most Republicans. Despite switching his residence to Florida in 2019, he owns property in New York and is empathetic to some wealthy New Yorkers’ concerns. He also still considers New York home, and has marveled at how he fared better in the 2024 election in the city than he did in either of his previous races. Intermediaries for Mr. Trump have been in touch with the associates of Mr. Adams, a Democrat running as an independent, about the possibility of leaving the race, according to two of the people briefed on the discussions.
Despite their shared party affiliation, Mr. Trump has fewer connections to Mr. Sliwa. The founder of the Guardian Angels, Mr. Sliwa has a history of bucking his party and has repeatedly said he has no interest in a job in Washington. Nonetheless, people in Mr. Trump’s orbit have talked about whether Mr. Sliwa might be amenable to a federal job, according to two people briefed on the conversations.
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been reluctant to abandon his bid for reelection — but an influential post in President Donald Trump’s administration could incentivize him to bow out and make it easier to halt Zohran Mamdani’s rise.
Adams has been offered a position at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a person with direct knowledge of the offer who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive matter.
The mayor, who has a friendly working and political relationship with Trump, met with the president’s team during his visit Monday to Florida, the person said.
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