NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams called a reported offer to work for the Trump administration “hypothetical” on Wednesday after reports swirled that the president and his advisers have discussed incentivizing the incumbent to drop his reelection campaign, helping clear the field for Andrew Cuomo to challenge Zohran Mamdani.
The talks have also involved the possibility of finding a potential federal role for Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, according to the New York Times, which first reported the news.
The goal, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions who spoke with the Times, would be to give the former governor a greater chance of defeating the Queens assemblymember and Democratic front-runner.
At an unrelated event Wednesday, Adams said that the question of whether he would take a White House position was “hypothetical,” but confirmed that he would not drop out of the race or “quit on the City of New York.”
“If they did or didn’t, my rules were the same from the first day I was elected. I don’t tell my private conversations,” Adams said. “I’ve been getting job offers for the last year and a half—even in the midst of all these crises—people like my leadership and how I turn around the city.”
“Don’t believe the noise,” Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said in a statement before the mayor's appearance, brushing off the reports. Shapiro also confirmed that the mayor has not spoken to Trump about the election.
Adams formally launched his reelection campaign at the end of June, months after the Department of Justice dropped federal corruption charges against him and he announced his intention to run as an independent.
Sliwa also denied being contacted by the Trump administration, and said that he is “not interested in a job with the White House.”
“My focus is right here in New York. I’m the only candidate on a major party line who can defeat Mamdani, and I’m committed to carrying this fight through to Election Day,” Sliwa said. “The people of New York City deserve a mayor who truly cares.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who defeated Cuomo by a notable margin in the June Democratic primary, held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the reports and condemn the alleged discussions.
“The reason that so many New Yorkers are fed up with politics as they know it is because of news like this; backroom deals, corrupt agreements, all of which serve to increase the sense of disaffection and despair as it pertains to how people feel about politics across this country,” Mamdani said.
In an interview with the Times on Wednesday, Cuomo denied discussing the race with Trump, stating that it would make more sense for the president to want Mamdani in office as part of his national political strategy.
“It would be a political gift to the Republican Party, which would then use him to characterize the Democrats across the country going into the midterms,” he said.