Goodbye to Trump’s Most Embarrassing Flunky

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The lengthy, bizarre^[2] political career of New York City Mayor Eric Adams has arrived at its inevitable, ignominious end. On Sunday afternoon—just weeks after insisting he was not dropping out of the race^[3] and taking a job with the Trump administration—Adams tweeted a suitably overwrought video from the steps of Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence, declaring that he was no longer seeking a second term, though he’d serve out the rest of the year and remain on the general-election ballot as a solo member of the “SafeAndAffordable” and “EndAntisemitism” party lines^[4].

“I cannot continue my reelection campaign,” Adams humbly submitted on camera as he sat next to a large headshot of his late mother^[7], with Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” playing in the background. The mayor then pivoted to a rhetorical tack fitting of the president he’s been sucking up to^[8] all year, and who just so happens to love that song^[9]. “Our children are being radicalized to hate our city and our country,” Adams intoned. “Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer is to destroy the very system we built together over generations.”

It was classic Eric Adams fare: calling back to his local familial roots, then drifting toward a mishmash of incoherent culture-war gripes and paeans to the machine politics that his constituents had rejected this round. While Adams didn’t name (or endorse) anyone throughout the nearly nine-minute clip, it appears he’d initially intended to make things a little personal: An early draft of his remarks included barbs at fellow candidate Andrew Cuomo as someone who “cannot be trusted^[10],” according to the New York Times. Yet those comments were cut from the final video, and Cuomo himself appeared to have only warm words for his rival. “I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition,” tweeted the disgraced ex-governor^[11]. “We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them.”

It was clear to whom Adams and Cuomo were respectively referring in their wishy-washy statements about “destructive” elements: mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani, the millennial democratic socialist who upturned the city’s establishment politics^[12] with his shocking victory in the Democratic primary this June. Whatever their personal beef, the “moderate” Adams and Cuomo undoubtedly still hope to keep the leftist Mamdani away^[13] from Gracie Mansion and will coordinate accordingly, perhaps with more^[14] direct^[15] meddling from President Donald Trump and billionaires^[16] like Bill Ackman^[17]. (Adams adviser Frank Carone now plans to work for a pro-Cuomo super PAC^[18].)

At this point, with just a little over a month left until the election, and with Mamdani maintaining double-digit polling leads^[19], those pathways are more foreclosed than ever^[20]. Adams, for his part, has not seen his numbers crack 12 percent in any major survey since July; the most recent Beacon Research poll found him sitting at a measly 7 percent. It’s an incredibly humiliating comedown for a mayor who, after winning the primary^[21] four years ago, was hailed as the future of the Democratic Party^[22]—only to end up the first indicted sitting mayor in NYC history, dodging the charges only by trading one corrupt deal (unsubtle quid pro quo deals with Turkish government officials^[23] and kickbacks for his deputies^[24]) for another (supplicating himself before the Trump regime and welcoming its brutal mistreatment of the city’s immigrants in exchange for legal immunity^[25]).

Adams, who’s blaming the media, Mamdani, and (frequently^[26] flouted^[27]) campaign finance regulations for his political demise, owns every bit of this downfall. Whatever the wealthiest residents, establishment leaders, and pundits will now say^[28] to whitewash his legacy^[29], one thing should be stated forthrightly: Adams was a terrible mayor who, by any measure, made^[30] the city^[31] worse^[32] through a combination of petty vehemence and delusional self-absorption. No matter what you think^[33] of Mamdani, New York is better off without Adams in power.

There were the spirited promises that actually brought him to victory^[35]—but were discarded once he entered office. A resolve to expand predecessor Bill de Blasio’s single greatest accomplishment, access to universal pre-K^[36], transformed into fatal neglect^[37] of the program. A pledge to boost parks funding ended with department layoffs and return to disrepair^[38] for many of New York’s beloved green spaces. Recommendations to improve^[39] business conditions for street vendors and compensation for delivery workers gave way to vetoes of bills^[40] that would do just those things. Plans to make city roads safer and to improve nonautomotive transit ended with crackdowns on otherwise-popular car-free streets^[41], e-bikes^[42], bike lanes^[43] that Adams’ donors (and car drivers) wanted gone. Advocacy for New York’s vibrant LGBTQ+ community turned into transphobic fearmongering^[44] and the hiring of homophobic officials^[45].

Initiatives for boosting the city’s scarce housing stock came to some fruition^[46], but Adams spent much of the past four years allowing residential landlords to hike tenant rents^[47] by unfathomable amounts^[48] and refusing to provide^[49] tenant relief. Reachouts to immigrant communities were soon replaced by speeches claiming that migrants would “destroy New York City^[50]” and dismissing their due process rights. Declarations to reform law enforcement and increase transparency were cast aside as former cop Adams failed to pursue substantive accountability^[51] for officers accused of brutality, allowed stop and frisk to come back^[52], and ousted his handpicked commissioner^[53] to stop her from taking the rare step of punishing (i.e., taking away a few vacation days from) a police chief who abused his authority.

In fairness, Adams did face challenges that would have been difficult for any mayor to navigate. He inherited a city that was especially hurt by the economic downturns from the COVID-19 pandemic, an unstable situation whose consequences manifested a small rise^[54] in violent crime and escalation of racist attacks against East Asian Americans^[55]. Then there were the asylum-seekers who were flown from the southern border to NYC by vindictive Republican governors^[56]; Adams’ job was only made more difficult thanks to the Biden administration, which bafflingly refused to offer federal services and support^[57] of the type it had provided when Ukrainian war refugees were resettling stateside. Even when those crises abated in their severity, New York remained a hot spot for high-profile news^[58]: the Diddy trial^[59], the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson^[60], the TikTok-infamous street punchers^[61], this summer’s mass shooting outside the NFL’s headquarters. It’s never easy to effectively govern a one-of-a-kind city with a greater population than many U.S. states and even foreign countries; it’s only harder when you’re a measly mayor, at the mercy of your state and federal governments, unable even to dictate policy with regard to your iconic subway.

Yet, when faced with adversity, Adams never knuckled up for any fights on principle, choosing only to take the easiest and most comfortable way out. (Here, he was assisted by a constellation of crooked hangers-on^[66], many of whom were quick to use^[67] their^[68] perch^[69] to give handouts to their friends or straight-up bribe^[70] anyone else as deemed necessary.) But the city doesn’t need someone else who takes four years to figure out that just throwing cops everywhere and gutting public services^[71] is not any sort of solution^[72] to urban crime. Forget the commentators who will claim that Adams had a good mayoralty in spite of^[73] his corruption. Corruption and self-interest were endemic to Adams’ rule, from the campaign funds he allegedly embezzled^[74] with the help of Turkish funders during his 2021 run, to the commercial leases^[75] and seats of power granted to pals with glaring conflicts of interest^[76], to the eager courtship of the rich New Yorkers^[77] who fear Zohran Mamdani—yet are, gradually^[78], coming to terms with his seemingly inevitable^[79] victory.

Ironically, it’s Adams’ very own malfeasance and inability to govern that have inspired New Yorkers to take a chance on Mamdani, a candidate who appears far more willing to buck the forces that ail the city, instead of openly leeching from them for his benefit. That’s probably the most positive thing one can say about his legacy.

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