While New York City braces for the next presidential administration, the city’s mayor seems at ease — and at times in step — with Donald Trump. In the face of potential mass deportations and federal funding cuts, New York City’s congressional Democrats are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
Just this week, Mayor Eric Adams set Democrats on edge by saying that “the Constitution is for Americans,” defending potentially broad deportations under Trump of undocumented immigrants in the city accused of crimes without facing trial.
Adams was hit with a sweeping federal indictment for bribery and campaign finance violations in September. Since then, the mayor has neatly dodged questions about a pardon from the next president. Their relationship has grown warmer in recent months — before the election, Adams chastised Kamala Harris and Democrats for calling Trump a fascist. And it’s been mutual: At the Al Smith dinner, Trump suggested, without basis, that both he and Adams are victims of the same justice system.
“Mayor Adams, good luck with everything. They went after you. They went after you, mayor,” he said. “I think you’re going to win. I know you’re going to win. So, good luck.”
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The two men spoke briefly in public after Trump’s win, ringside at a UFC fight. Adams told reporters they “exchanged pleasantries.”After the election, Adams told reporters he spoke with Trump about “issues in the city” but wouldn’t answer a question about Trump helping his case.
It’s not an impossibility that Trump would make the case against Adams disappear. In his first presidency, he used most of his clemency power to wave away the legal troubles of the wealthy and politically well-connected. He exercised power over the justice system, pressuring U.S. attorneys to bring or close cases.
Trump has already announced his intended replacement for Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who brought the case against Adams.
With Trump, it’s impossible to predict exactly what will happen regarding Adams. In the meantime, New York Democrats are keeping an eye on the dynamic between Adams and Trump, while preparing to fight for the city’s interests in the next administration.
“Some of the rhetoric and actual real movement that we’ve seen, in terms of Trump moving to dismiss the SDNY prosecutor, I think raises some concerning flags about any potential deference from the mayor’s office to the Trump administration,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told NOTUS. “My hope is that we don’t see those concerns play out and that he fights forcefully for New Yorkers.”
The more immediate source of anxiety among Democrats is less about whether Trump will pardon Adams and more about what a Trump administration will mean for New York City — and how Adams fits into that narrative. Trump’s threats of mass deportations have gripped the headlines in the city, which is home to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. But slashing or eliminating federal funding that the city relies on for housing, health care and education could be just as impactful.
“I’m concerned that what the Trump administration sees as waste, many in my community see as a social safety net,” Rep. Ritchie Torres told NOTUS.
The New York City Housing Authority houses roughly half a million people — one in 17 New Yorkers. It has been the victim of habitual underinvestment at all levels of government, including at the federal level, where NYCHA receives a large portion of its funding through federal subsidies and Section 8, the Housing Choice Voucher Program.
“Donald Trump is a threat to social safety net programs like public housing, Section 8. And for me, we as House Democrats have no greater obligation than to defend the social safety net from the worst of the powers of the presidency,” Torres said.
Rep. Grace Meng told NOTUS that the work has already started to shield the city from the most dramatic of what Trump has promised.
“We are doing everything we can, working with local grassroots organizations to make sure that the most vulnerable in our communities are still protected,” she said. “So, we’re worried, but we’re going to work with our groups, we’re going to work with our city and our state.”
Meng said she hasn’t spoken to Adams directly since the election but hopes he’ll do what he can in the face of the new administration.
“I hope that he will remember that he is the mayor for all the people of New York City and trust that he will do whatever he can to protect all of his constituents,” she said.
In a radio interview with WNYC last month, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand expressed confidence in how the mayor would handle Trump, despite not being a fan of his language as of late.
“I don’t know if he has a conflict of interest. I do have faith that Mayor Adams will not participate in a mass deportation force. I just don’t think that’s in his character or his background or anything that he’s ever said,” she said. “I don’t like the rhetoric he’s used over the last year. I think it’s divisive and unhelpful and doesn’t aid New York, so I don’t support that rhetoric. I don’t think he’d be part of something that President Trump wants to do in that regard. I really don’t.”
Gillibrand told NOTUS on Wednesday that she had not had any discussions with Adams about the incoming Trump administration.
While most think it’s unlikely that Adams would work with Trump to fulfill the president-elect’s most dramatic promises, exiting New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman said he could see a world where it happened.
“Who the hell knows,” Bowman told NOTUS. “Unfortunately, to too many elected officials, politics is a game. So, can I see a world where Trump is attempting to do this, and publicly, Adams is feigning resistance, but privately, he’s looking the other way, nodding and winking? I could see a world where that happens.”
Adams said on Tuesday that he would welcome a meeting with Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who has spearheaded Trump’s calls for mass deportations.
“I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we are going to address those who are harming our citizens,” Adams said during a news conference. “Find out what his plans are, where our common grounds are. We can work together.”
The Hill reported that Homan has plans to speak with Adams.
“Good,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the city’s only Republican in Congress. “He should meet him. He should listen to what the people of the city and the state said, which was an overwhelming shift toward Republican policies and president Trump. We should meet with them, and he should cooperate to deport criminals out of our city.”
Adams’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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