NYC Mayor Eric Adams speaks highly of Donald Trump — unlike some other Democrats

He has called Donald Trump one of the "great patriots," criticized Joe Biden, praised Elon Musk, accused the Justice Department of political vendettas against enemies, gotten a hero’s welcome on Fox News, welcomed some of Trump's hard-line immigration threats and dared foes on the political left: "Cancel me!"

A MAGA Republican? No, the mayor of one of America’s most left-leaning cities, Eric Adams, is a Democrat.

Adams used to brand himself the "Biden of Brooklyn," but he has ramped up his praise, and defense, of Trump, particularly since September, when Adams was indicted on corruption charges in Manhattan federal court.

"I am not going to be warring with this president," Adams said earlier this month. "I’m going to be working with this president."

It’s a contrast with how Adams used to talk, tweeting in 2021, soon after winning the primary election: "As always, Trump gets it wrong."

In 2015, he ripped into then-candidate Trump, who expressed a desire to close down mosques as a way to combat ISIS.

"Donald Trump is attempting to appeal to the darkest part of America," he said. "The mean-spiritedness, the hate mongering, the attempt to play on the fears of Americans."

The next year, Adams said that a New York City mayor must stand up to Trump.

"Now more than ever, we need a mayor that's willing to out-trump Trump, a mayor that's willing to stand up and fight for the values and principles of this city and this country," Adams said. "A person who's not only tall in stature but a giant among those little midgets that are going to hold the city back." He also said Trump traffics in "idiot behavior" and "buffoonery" and his supporters have "hateful thinking and mindsets."

Now Adams says it is not Trump who's holding the city back. Over the past few months, Adams has refused to criticize Trump, defending him again and again, including from attacks that the former and future president was akin to "Hitler" or a "dictator." Trump later expressed thanks to Adams for the defense.

Earlier this month, Trump said he’d consider pardoning Adams because he’d been treated "really unfairly," suggesting that Adams was indicted — charged with trading luxury travel for political donations and municipal favors — because Adams had been critical of Biden's handling of the border, which had drawn over 220,000 migrants to New York City.

Political whipsawing like Adams keeps doing — Democrat then Republican then Democrat then maybe Republican again; Trump detractor then Trump booster — is virtually unheard-of in American politics, according to Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University who’s written about civic engagement and specializes in American politics.

"The rule of thumb in politics is that you are allowed one big switch in your political life," he said. "And when you engage in more than that, then you’re subject to criticism and the observation that you’re a bit politically flaky."

Reeher added: "The people you’re changing to are not gonna trust you and the people you’re changing from are gonna hate you."

The federal prosecution of Adams can’t be overlooked either, Reeher said.

"It’s making his life, fairly or unfairly, really hard and difficult as a mayor and in any other way. And so it may be that it’s a personal kind of thing for him as well as a political thing," Reeher said.

Adams’ reaction to Trump’s reelection last month is different from some other Democratic leaders around the country. Denver Mayor Mike Johnson, urging protests, said he was prepared to go to jail and to deploy city police against federal officers, a "Tiananmen Square moment." Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, said: "We will not bend or break. Our values will remain strong and firm. We will face likely hurdles in our work over the next four years but we will not be stopped and we will not go back."

And Adams’ reaction is in contrast with his immediate predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who like Adams last month held a postelection news conference in 2016, when Trump won the first time. Except de Blasio promised: "we’re going to fight."

Earlier this month, Adams met with Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, who is charged with helping carry out Trump’s promised largest deportation operation in American history. Adams says he’s exploring how to use executive orders to get around New York City’s sanctuary city laws, which limit almost all cooperation between the city and federal immigration enforcers, including when trying to deport criminals.

Then again, Adams has always leaned more to the right than de Blasio. In 1995, Adams switched political parties to become a Republican before returning to the Democratic Party in 2002.

And he hasn’t ruled out switching back to the Republicans, saying, "The party that’s the most important for me is the American party. I’m a part of the American party. I love this country. This is the home of the free, the land of the brave."

Adams said that he, like Trump, is a victim of a vendetta.

"I started to just go and search what has happened to other people. Not only to President-elect Trump, but there are other great patriots that have gone through a difficult period of time," Adams said in an interview with "Dr. Phil" McGraw  in an interview.

When Adams ran for mayor, he promised law and order and has been more aggressive in routing homeless people from public spaces.

At his postelection news conference, Adams promised that "this city will always stand up for the rights of women, our immigrant brothers and sisters, our LGBTQ+ communities and millions of others." He has declined to provide details.

The city relies on billions in federal dollars, for education, welfare, policing and more, and Trump has threatened to cut funds for sanctuary city jurisdictions. 

Asked the extent to which Trump’s ascent would affect the city’s policies, Adams said Friday he’s willing to work with anyone and that his policies would remain the "same, consistent."

"What our skill that we have is our ability to work across the aisle. It shouldn’t matter who is in the White House. New York City is the economic engine of this entire country," Adams said, saying that Trump "has shared with me, he wants to make sure the city is going to be fine."

Adams’ embrace of Trump has not gone unnoticed by his critics, particularly Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, and Jumaane Williams, the public advocate. Lander is running for mayor in 2025.

In the days after the election, Williams tweeted: “‘The Biden of Brooklyn’ to ‘The Trump of Brooklyn’ nears completion."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.