President Donald Trump admitted at a news conference in Florida on Tuesday afternoon that he “helped out” embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams when he ordered the Department of Justice to drop federal corruption charges against Adams earlier this year.
Trump said it’s been a long time since a Republican ran the city, as he offered support to Adams in the mayor’s current re-election bid as an independent. “You have a good independent running, Mayor Adams, who’s a very good person,” Trump began before acknowledging he did Adams a favor.
“I helped him out a little bit. He had a problem and he was unfairly hurt over this question,” Trump said, referring to why the DOJ under former President Joe Biden indicted Adams last fall on charges related to bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals in exchange for political favors.
“He made a statement to the effect that this is terrible. New York City can’t have all these immigrants come in, and like he was indicted the following day, and I said, ‘That was a phony indictment,’ and it was a phony indictment,” Trump insisted.
CNN reported in February that the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, revealed stunning allegations that Adams’ attorneys “had repeatedly urged a quid pro quo under which Adams would help Trump’s hardline immigration policy if the case were dropped.” Adams denied the allegations.
Trump went on to disparage those involved with indicting Adams.
“That was a Biden indictment,” the President claimed.
“That was a bad group. That was a very dangerous group, I will tell you. These were not nice people. … That was the only thing they could do. … They were vicious, vicious, horrible people,” he added.
“Trump just openly admitted to doing Eric Adams a favor and getting rid of his criminal charges. The corruption is beyond brazen–it’s now boisterous and cartoonish,” one pundit posted on the social media platform X.
This X user was a bit blunter about it: “i.e. One criminal helped another criminal by doing something illegal. Did y’all catch that? Trump just admitted he ‘helped,’ NTC Mayor with a ‘problem.’ That’s mob boss code for: I used my power to interfere with the law.”
Another weighed in with “He’s informing everyone about the corruption because he is aware that there will be no consequences.”
Still another had this take on it. “Criminals stick together almost like they’re a gang. Imagine that. No wonder he’s always banging on about his rival gang MS 13.”
Adams wasn’t the only topic at Trump’s news event. He also took another swipe at the winner of last week’s Democratic mayoral primary. He warned Zohran Mamdani that if he wins the election, he had better not interfere with federal immigration enforcement. Trump also falsely called him a “communist” again and questioned his legal status.
