Adams Considers Dropping Out of Race After Secret Meeting in Florida
Adams Considers Dropping Out of Race After Secret Meeting in Florida
Mayor Eric Adams of New York City has told confidants that he would consider abandoning his re-election bid. President Trump said he favored a “one on one” mayoral race.
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By Nicholas FandosWilliam K. RashbaumDana Rubinstein and Maggie Haberman
Sept. 4, 2025
Facing a swirl of questions about a potential job in the Trump administration, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City stood outside City Hall on Thursday and suggested he was not going anywhere.
But in private, Mr. Adams has told a small group of friends and advisers that he is seriously considering job opportunities that could prompt him to suspend his re-election campaign, according to people familiar with the conversations.
The talks about Mr. Adams’s future have involved intermediaries for President Trump, including Steve Witkoff, a New York real estate investor who is one of Mr. Trump’s closest advisers. The mayor and Mr. Witkoff conferred in Florida this week in a previously undisclosed meeting, according to four people briefed on it.
The meeting was a closely guarded secret. City Hall said at first that the mayor was attending to a “personal matter”; Mr. Adams’s campaign spokesman then asserted the mayor was in Miami to celebrate his 65th birthday. Pressed later, Mr. Adams said only that he was meeting with “political figures,” including the mayor of Miami.
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What exactly the two men discussed was not immediately clear, including whether Mr. Adams had been offered a position or would accept one. Even people close to Mr. Adams acknowledged it can be difficult to predict what he might do.
But several of the people, who insisted on anonymity, said that the job discussions have accelerated as the mayor’s chances of winning a second term have faded. He has faced a cloud of corruption scandals and sagging poll numbers, driven in part by the Trump administration’s February move to abandon a corruption case against Mr. Adams so he could help implement its immigration agenda.
Mr. Trump, a native New Yorker whose voter registration is now in Florida, has taken an intense interest in the race for mayor since the Democratic primary in June, when Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist state assemblyman, won an upset victory over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
The New York Times and other media outlets reported on Wednesday that intermediaries for Mr. Trump had been in touch with the mayor and his associates about a potential job in his administration. The Times reported that Trump advisers had also discussed finding a job for Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, in hopes of creating a two-man race between Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Mamdani.
Asked at a White House event if he is trying to get a candidate out of the mayoral race, Mr. Trump said “no” and attacked Mr. Mamdani’s politics, but then appeared to confirm that he wants the field to condense and is paying close attention to the campaign.
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