Amid sharp debate over President Trump’s executive orders on immigration, gender identity and other issues, Mayor Adams said Tuesday he has made a deal to not publicly criticize President Trump and has been assured he’ll have a direct line to him.
Adams said they made that agreement while he met privately with Trump at his namesake golf club in Florida this past Friday.
The deal would include controversial topics such as the order the end of birthright citizenship, pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters and other actions that could have serious impacts on New York City.
“We’re not going to agree on everything, but those areas that we disagree, I’m going to personally share with [Trump], and he has given me an opportunity to communicate with him directly on issues we disagree, and I respect that,” Adams said during his weekly press conference at City Hall before adding:
“I don’t want to be part of what feeds the anxiety of going back and forth.”
The announcement drew a swift rebuke. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat who has recently stepped up her criticism of the mayor, was perplexed by his refusal to slam Trump’s recent actions.
“This shouldn’t be that hard: The EO to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional. Rioters who attacked police and broke into the capitol should be held accountable. Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement will set environmental progress back for generations,” the speaker wrote on X.
Adams has come under fire for the last several months by a range of Democrats who say the mayor has been overly cozy with Trump and note the mayor is facing federal corruption charges that the Republican president is considering pardoning him for.
Adams revealed the agreement after being asked whether he opposes Trump’s Day One moves such as pulling the country out of the Paris Climate Accords, issue a legally dubious executive order that seeks to terminate birthright citizenship in the U.S. and offer clemency for some 1,500 criminal defendants accused of participating in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The moves were part of a raft of controversial executive actions Trump took within hours of being sworn in Monday, several of which have already drawn legal challenges, including the bid to end birthright citizenship, which New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit over Tuesday seeking to invalidate it.
Trump’s Jan. 6 clemency actions included pardoning and commuting lengthy prison sentences of supporters who were convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers during the Capitol Hill chaos in 2021.
Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP
President Trump speaks during his inauguration. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP)
The Jan. 6 riot — undertaken by Trump supporters who sought to block the certification of President Biden’s 2020 election after Trump falsely claimed his victory was fraudulent — resulted in the death of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer assaulted in the melee. Four other officers who responded to the Capitol attack committed suicide in its aftermath.
Adams, a former NYPD captain who was elected in 2021 on a pro-police platform, didn’t say Tuesday whether he thought it was appropriate for Trump to grant clemency to individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers.
In fact, Adams suggested there could be reason to take a second look at some such Jan. 6 convictions, pointing to his own claim that federal prosecutors in Manhattan were politically motivated in bringing corruption charges against him.
“You look at how this system has been, you have to really raise questions — I raised it, President Trump raised it, President Biden raised it, that’s something we should all reflect on,” he said.
Adams’ unwillingness to condemn Trump contrasts with his repeated criticism of President Biden’s handling of the national migrant crisis. Adams said he also gave Biden the benefit of the doubt by not criticizing him “out the gate.”
“The same thing I did for President Biden, I am doing for this president,” he said.
Adams’ revelation that he has a direct line of communication with Trump is the latest wrinkle in what many see as an overly chummy relationship with the president for a Democrat.
Adams most recently came under fire over his decision to head to Washington, D.C early Monday morning to attend the inauguration after getting a last-minute invite.
In order to make the inauguration, Adams cancelled appearances at a number of Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations in New York, a move that drew pushback from a number of local Black leaders.
Asked at Tuesday’s press conference about the criticism, Adams claimed his attendance at Trump’s inauguration is consistent with Dr. King’s “dream.”
“My life is the life that Dr. King was talking about when he says he had a dream,” he said. “I’m living that dream, and my desire to be in Washington to make sure I continue to move forward on that dream.”
