New York City Mayor Eric Adams looks on during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing to examine the jurisdiction of “sanctuary cities” on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 5, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday said he would not drop out of the city’s mayoral race after a report that close advisors to President Donald Trump were working on a plan to nominate Adams as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
“I’m running for reelection,” Adams said.
“I’m going to beat Mamdani,” the mayor said, referring to Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner in the contest.
Adams’ event at Grace Mansion was publicly disclosed after The New York Times reported about a potential offer of the ambassadorship to the mayor.
If Adams were to drop out of his long-shot bid to win re-election as New York’s mayor, it could boost the chances of independent candidate Andrew Cuomo.
Trump has said he would like two candidates to drop out of the contest to make it easier for a remaining challenger to defeat the democratic socialist Mamdani.
“I think if you have more than one candidate. We’ve got ourselves a communist mayor in New York,” Trump told reporters shortly after Adams’ statement.
“I would say that Cuomo might have a chance of winning if it was a one-on-one,” Trump said.
“If it’s not one one-on-one, it’s going to be a hard race,” the president said.
Adams and the former New York governor Cuomo are both Democrats.
But Adams is running for reelection as an independent.
He decided not to seek the Democratic nomination after facing falling public approval ratings and after being criminally indicted on federal corruption charges.
That criminal case was dropped in April at the request of the Trump administration.
Mamdani handily defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder, and the Republican nominee, has said he plans to remain in the race.
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