Trump heaps praise on NYC's indicted mayor, who critics say is a "MAGA supporter"

At his regular weekly press conference, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is currently under federal indictment on corruption charges, refused to answer a question about how recently he had spoken to Donald Trump, or to others on the former president's team. This was striking in the wake of Trump's warm words for the city's mayor during Trump's inflammatory Madison Square Garden rally this past Sunday. 

“Give me another question, please," Adams snapped at Politico reporter Jeff Coltin. "You lost your opportunity.” 

Coltin was attempting to circle back to comments Adams had made a week earlier, suggesting that Adams had “in essence, defended Trump when it came to the issue of whether he's a fascist or not.” 

Adams appeared to avoid the question of passing judgment on Trump after the instantly notorious Madison Square Garden rally, at which one featured speaker described Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory and the ancestral home of more than a million New Yorkers — as “a floating island of garbage,” while Trump falsely claimed that the the Biden administration and FEMA “haven’t even responded in North Carolina” in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

“They spent their money on bringing in illegal migrants so they didn’t have money for Georgia and North Carolina and Alabama and Tennessee and Florida and South Carolina,” Trump told the MSG crowd. “They spent all of their money on bringing in illegal immigrants and flying them in by beautiful jet planes. ... They would fly them into the middle of our country, our beautiful, beautiful country.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also spoke at the rally, suggesting that most or all Palestinians were terrorists who "are taught to kill us at two years old. ... They may have good people. I'm sorry, I don't take a risk with people who are taught to kill Americans at two. I am on the side of Israel. You are on the side of Israel. Donald Trump is on the side of Israel. And they [Democrats] are on the side of the terrorists."

Trump also offered unexpected words of support for Adams, who has suggested that he was “targeted” by federal prosecutors for his criticism of the Biden administration over its “broken immigration policies.” 

“You know, I want to thank Mayor Adams because Mayor Adams has been treated pretty badly," Trump told the MSG MAGA crowd. “You know, when he said that this whole thing with the migrants coming into New York, this is just not sustainable. You know, we can’t do it. We’re trying to run a city. We got 100,000 migrants coming. We can’t do it. We just can’t do it. It’s not feasible. It’s not good.”

Adams has been "really great," Trump continued. "He said that they shouldn’t be calling Trump a dictator because it’s not true. ... That was nice. I want to thank Mayor Adams for going through a hard time with these people," an apparent reference to federal prosecutors. "These are lunatics, by the way. They’ve weaponized the Justice Department against their political opponents. I am under investigation more than the great, late Alphonse Capone.”

Perhaps that helps explain why Adams posted a tweet after the rally that seemed to deplore the rhetoric without naming names: “The hateful words that were used by some at today’s rally at Madison Square Garden were completely unacceptable. No matter who says it, hate is hate and there is no place for it in our city. As Americans, we always should stand up against racism, antisemitism, and misogyny.” 

But when confronted in the City Hall Blue Room, Adams took a page from the Trump deflection manual in his response to Burkett’s question, attacking the news media for having the wrong priorities by asking him to clarify his relationship to the multiply-indicted former president who may soon be elected to a second term. 

“Let me tell you what I find insulting," Adams said. "I find it insulting when you have children dying on top of trains based on what they're mimicking on social media. A housing crisis in the city, affordability, thousands of seniors are unable to know if they're going to be able to live in the city. I speak to my mayors across the country and they talk about these real problems we're having. And with all that's going on to everyday New Yorkers, we're asking questions that is someone a fascist or is someone a Hitler. That's insulting to me. ... I'm not going to engage in that.

“Everyone needs to turn down the rhetoric, because after Election Day we still have to be the United States and not the divided states,” Adams continued, in a now-familiar preacher or lecturer mode. lectured reporters. “And so if people can't understand their real issues facing New Yorkers, and I just find it just humiliating that ... here we are having this conversation about this silly item.” 

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On the steps of City Hall, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who would succeed Adams if the mayor is forced to resign, told WBAI radio that New Yorkers had a "need to know" whether Adams was back-channeling with Trump. “The mayor’s comments have been disgraceful," Williams said. "They’ve been disgusting from a so-called Democratic mayor who has had more criticism of Biden and Harris than he has of Trump and Vance. It makes me believe that he may have wanted to remain in the Republican Party. He should have done so and just been a MAGA supporter.”