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New York Mayor Eric Adams is in talks with advisers to the Trump administration about a possible nomination as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, according to four people “familiar with the discussions” who spoke to The New York Times.
Adams said in a statement Friday that he is staying in the race, but added, “While I will always listen if called to serve our country, no formal offers have been made.” The Times noted that “conversations could still fall apart for a variety of reasons.”
The news comes after Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he “would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one,” likely referring to Adams and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee whose exit, polling experts say, could help former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo defeat the Democratic nominee and front-runner in the polls, Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani beat Cuomo this year in the Democratic primary, and shortly afterward, Cuomo announced he would run as an independent. Adams is also running as an independent.
“I don’t think you can win unless you have one-on-one, because somehow he’s gotten a little bit of a lead,” Trump said. In the same conversation, Trump also called Mamdani “a communist” and threatened his candidacy.
“You have a lot of crooked things going on in New York,” Trump said. “We’re going to straighten out New York, and maybe we’re going to have to straighten it out from Washington.”
In an interview on “All In” on Thursday, Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, told Chris Hayes that Trump’s interference in the election is “an affront to our city’s democracy. This is an affront to the values that make so many of us proud to be Americans — that we can choose our own leaders, not that our leaders pick themselves or their friends.”
With two months left before the election, Mamdani hit the $8 million fund-raising cap on Friday, the maximum amount that candidates can spend. “We can’t take anymore of your money. Truly, you need to stop,” Mamdani said in a video he posted on X announcing the news.
Neither Adams’ campaign nor the White House responded to MSNBC’s request for comment.