By cutting a raw deal with the Trump/Musk regime, the mayor is attacking the very fabric of New York City.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Donald Trump “border czar” Tom Homan appearing on Fox & Friends on Friday, February 14, 2025.(Fox News)
Eric Adams’s time as mayor of New York City has been dominated by two things: an assault on the lives of working-class people, and bone-deep corruption on behalf of either Adams or his rich cronies.
This past week, these twin strands fused in a particularly appalling way, when the Trump administration’s Department of Justice strong-armed its own prosecutors into dropping their federal corruption case against Adams. The federal prosecutor who was asked to drop the case has since resigned, as have six other prosecutors.
The scandal has sparked a political crisis. On Monday, four of his deputy mayors resigned, joining a growing list of city leaders who have lost confidence in his leadership. Then, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she is considering using her powers to remove Adams from office—an extraordinary step that has never been taken before.
The DOJ’s shocking move came after Adams spent months blatantly begging for some kind of legal reprieve from Trump. But it also came after Adams took step after step to MAGA-fy the city’s government, particularly its approach to immigration.
The quid pro quo here seems to be that Trump will excuse Adams’s criminality in exchange for willing, even outright enthusiastic, support for the White House’s cruel and illegal policies of mass deportation—despite New York City’s strong sanctuary protections, which are intended to prevent cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Danielle Sassoon, the former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who resigned over the dismissal of the corruption case, wasn’t afraid to use plain language about the situation. “Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case,” she wrote in a letter last week.
What’s more, the DOJ advised for the charges against Adams to be dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning that they can be refiled in the future. This gives the White House a functional veto on any policy taking place within the city that the Trump administration dislikes.
The real-world effects of this deal were obvious last week. Last Monday, Adams warned his top officials not to criticize Trump or interfere with federal immigration enforcement. On Thursday, Adams met with Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” to discuss ways New York City’s government could collaborate with Trump. As one of Adams’s spokespeople put it, “Mayor Adams has also been clear that he wants to work with the new federal administration, not war with them.” Adams then announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be allowed to operate at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex.
Then, on Friday, Adams appeared on Fox News with Homan, who made the deal all but explicit. “If he doesn’t come through…. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?,’” Homan said, as Adams grinned alongside him. (Adams and Homan have denied any explicit quid pro quo.)
This is the cost of having a criminal mayor. But more than that, it’s what happens when New Yorkers have a mayor who doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his wealthy backers.
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.
As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
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Adams has consistently sided with enemies of the working class—selling out libraries to fund more cops, standing with landlords and the real estate lobby over the renters that make up the majority of the city’s residents, and allegedly taking bribes from the Turkish government.
Considering his dire legal situation, and the noted similarities between himself and Trump—their shared outer-borough bluster, their deference to allies and cronies at the expense of governance; their relentless demagoguery around law and order issues; their insistence that, despite having immense power, they are actually the ones under attack from outside forces; and ultimately, their evasion of criminal prosecution—it should be no surprise that Adams is now finding common cause with the Trump administration and its odious goals.
But whether or not Adams is ousted for his corrupt pact with Trump, tremendous damage has already been done. Undocumented immigrants, trans and queer people, and other political enemies of the administration are footing the bill for his corruption. ICE has already begun conducting raids within the five boroughs. The disappearing of our friends and neighbors has had a chilling effect on our communities. Some children who recently arrived in the city have stopped attending school for fear that they will be targeted.
In case there was any doubt, the Adams fiasco shows it: The working class will always be expected to pick up the tab for the crimes of the ruling class. New York City is a place where immigrants and marginalized people are supposed to be able to find strength in community. By cutting a raw deal with the Trump/Musk regime, Adams is attacking that tradition—and, in the process, the very fabric of our city.
It remains to be seen whether Adams will survive as mayor. But no matter what the future holds for him, working-class New Yorkers have an opportunity to reclaim power in City Hall. Mayoral elections are taking place this year, with the Democratic primary in June and the general election in November.
A working-class electorate united in solidarity can send the message that we do not fear our neighbors and will not be governed by fascist collaborators. We deserve a mayor who can project a positive vision for this city. The people who make this city work deserve to be able to live here affordably. Tenants deserve peace of mind knowing they will be able to make rent each month. Our libraries and our subways deserve to be publicly funded. And, given how difficult the next four years are going to be, we deserve a mayor who will stand up for us and fight the Trump administration with the full force of the city behind him, rather than join the criminal enterprise sweeping across this country.
Kareem ElrefaiKareem Elrefai is an Egyptian American union negotiator and an organizer with the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.