NY GOP questions Adams-Trump bonding

December 17, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CITYWIDE – SOME NEW YORK Republicans, who have offered pitched opposition to Mayor Adams for the duration of his term, are expressing discomfort with what appears to be a “blooming relationship” between the mayor and President-elect Trump, reports the New York Times. While the city’s GOP has fought the mayor on several fronts, Adams and Trump have in recent months expressed some support for each other. Trump earlier this year sympathized with Adams over the mayor’s bribery charges, and on Monday said he would consider offering Adams a pardon.

Adams, meanwhile, has asserted he is still a Democrat, but has significantly shifted his stance on Trump’s banner issue of immigration, meeting last week with Trump’s “border czar” to discuss deportations. Members of Adams’ administration have allegedly reached out to NYC Republicans about potentially attending Trump’s inauguration, although the mayor at a Monday press conference denied that this had been authorized.

Brooklyn U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the city’s only Congressional Republican, told the Times, “The Republicans have had to fight him tooth and nail on everything from shelters to sanctuary policy to bike lanes and speed cameras […] His values are not those of the Republican Party,” but did not rule out a future alliance, citing the political reorientations of Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., former Democrats who have joined Trump’s team. Other Republicans urged the president-elect to think twice about becoming close with the mayor, saying that he is still too liberal for the conservative GOP.

Republican southern Brooklyn councilmember Inna Vernikov also expressed support for potentially working with Adams, as did Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who said, “Now he wants to do the right thing, and it’s never too late to do the right thing, and Donald Trump wants to be there to support him.”

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