Donald Trump may have just lost his Eric Adams gambit
We all knew that corrupt and indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams would go running to Donald Trump for help. And we all knew that Trump would offer to help Adams in exchange for corrupt concessions. Sure enough, Trump had the DOJ drop all federal criminal charges against Adams, and while Adams denies it, Adams is clearly beholden to Trump. But this simplistic plan on Trump’s part may have failed already.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that she’s meeting with key New York City leaders later today to decide what to do about Eric Adams. It’s not a given that she’ll end up removing Adams from office after this meeting. But given the sheer number of New York City leaders who are publicly calling for Adams’ ouster, it’s hard to imagine that Hochul would set up such a meeting unless she were open to removing Adams.
We’ll see what happens today. But if Hochul does remove Adams, then Trump will no longer have a puppet running New York City, and he’ll have gotten Adams off the legal hook for nothing. It’ll leave egg on Trump’s face, and it’ll significantly hamper Trump’s ability to go after immigrants in the nation’s biggest city.
It’s important to remember that for every corrupt move Trump makes, there is always a counter-move of some kind. The counter-moves may not always end up working. As I’ve said from the outset, we’re only going to win some of the battles we’re fighting against Trump. But this means that as long as we keep fighting, Trump is going to be defeated on a number of things he’s trying to do.
