NEW YORK (WPIX) — The political play: Stop Zohran Mamdani at any cost.
Multiple reports suggest the race for mayor of New York City could be narrowing, as some allege former President Donald Trump is looking to influence the outcome of the November election.
To do that, reports claim Trump is brokering backroom deals to narrow the race from four candidates to two.
“I am not going into private conversations. And no matter what happens, right now I’m the mayor of the City of New York,” Mayor Eric Adams said.
Adams, fresh off a trip to Florida, denied reports Wednesday that he was in the Sunshine State for a job interview or that he was pitched a position in Washington with Housing and Urban Development.
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“I’ve been getting [different] job offers for the last year and a half,” Adams said. “Even in the midst of all this crisis, people like my leadership and how I turned around the city.”
Trump has not been shy about his feelings toward the Democratic frontrunner.
“In New York, we have a communist running, and he may win and will destroy the city,” Trump said in July.
The president has also voiced support for Adams.
“Mayor Adams is a very good person. I helped him out a little bit; he had a problem,” Trump said earlier this summer.
But with Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa polling in third and fourth place, splitting critical votes, the president would reportedly prefer they step aside.
“I want the people to decide, not the billionaires,” Sliwa said Wednesday.
The hypothetical, according to reports, would give Trump a better shot at seeing Andrew Cuomo as mayor, especially for his own business interests.
“The greatest city in the world should have a City Hall protecting the people, not working with an administration to destroy the fabric of the city,” Mamdani said.
The progressive candidate called Trump’s reported alliance with Cuomo a backroom deal of betrayal.
“We know NYC will decide its future, not the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Mamdani said.
Cuomo’s team did not respond to the claims, which were first reported by The New York Times.
A recent poll of a hypothetical Cuomo-Mamdani matchup shows the former governor beating the upstart candidate 52% to 41%.
