Close advisers have spent days crafting a plan for President Trump to nominate Mayor Eric Adams to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, in an effort to end the mayor’s long-shot campaign for re-election in New York City, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate investor and adviser to Mr. Trump, had actively pursued the matter, meeting personally with Mr. Adams earlier this week in Florida and speaking with other people close to him.
But the hopes of sealing the exchange had faded by late Friday, at least temporarily, amid competing political pressures and public pushback over reports of a potential deal between Mr. Trump and the mayor.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat who is running as an independent, hastily convened a news conference outside Gracie Mansion late in the afternoon where he sought to undercut the idea that he was going anywhere. He insisted, more forcefully than he has done in recent days, that he was staying in the race, and derided his opponents as “spoiled brats.”
He did not directly address the possibility of taking an ambassadorship, or the conversations that his own advisers had joined to advance his prospects outside of New York City. He spoke for about five minutes, turned his back and walked away as reporters shouted questions.
The stakes are unusually high. If Mr. Adams were to take a position in the Trump administration and suspend his campaign, proponents of the plan thought, it could help consolidate opposition to Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner.
The people familiar with the discussions, who insisted on anonymity, said that Mr. Adams was open to accepting a nomination and ending his campaign, but had been waiting to see if the White House or Mr. Witkoff would formally offer the nomination, or any other job. None had yet arrived.
The situation grew so chaotic at one point Friday that two people close to Mr. Adams said he had scheduled a visit to Washington on Monday for meetings at the White House. Other news outlets reported his travel plans.
But minutes later, one of the people abruptly reversed course and said there would be no trip after all. Mr. Adams later said he would not be going.
In Washington, Mr. Trump said the mayor was “free to do what he wants” and denied that he had offered him an ambassadorship.
“No, I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with doing that.”
He added that he believed former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, 67, who has also been trying to push Mr. Adams out, would have the best chance of defeating Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, is running as a third-party candidate.
“I would say that Cuomo might have a chance of winning if it was a one-on-one,” Mr. Trump said. “If it’s not one-on-one, I would say it’s going to be a hard race.”
The extent of Mr. Trump’s direct involvement in the talks — which have included Frank Carone, Mr. Adams’s former chief of staff who is helping oversee his campaign — was cloudy, and people close to Mr. Adams were uncertain whether the idea of him being nominated to the ambassadorship had the president’s backing.
But Mr. Trump has made little secret of his interest in the race in his hometown over the course of months, publicly and privately railing against Mr. Mamdani and discussing with associates how to help set up a rematch with Mr. Cuomo, this time one-on-one.
Still, other factions in Mr. Trump’s orbit have taken a different view, arguing that Mr. Mamdani as mayor would provide a helpful foil for Republicans in next year’s crucial midterm elections. They could try to stop any nomination of Mr. Adams.
The Times first reported earlier this week that Mr. Trump’s allies had been discussing ways to persuade both Mr. Adams and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee and founder of the Guardian Angels, to drop out of the race. That would clear the field for Mr. Cuomo’s third-party candidacy.
Mr. Sliwa has insisted he has no interest in a job in the Trump administration and plans to stay in the race.
Despite Mr. Adams’s denial on Friday, he had privately told allies in recent days that he was considering a range of options at a time when polls show his path to re-election has all but closed.
If Mr. Adams did accept a nomination for an ambassadorship but served out his term, he would very likely remain on November’s general election ballot. If he resigned quickly, he could attempt to take his name off, but doing so would plunge New York into uncertainty and temporarily elevate to the mayoralty a frequent antagonist, Jumaane D. Williams, the city’s progressive public advocate.
If the White House or others could persuade one or both men to drop out, it could certainly hurt Mr. Mamdani’s chances by consolidating opposition. But Mr. Mamdani would most likely remain the favorite. Polls generally show him comfortably ahead of Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Sliwa. Mr. Adams is polling in the single digits.
Any support from Mr. Trump, even tacit, could also blow back on Mr. Cuomo in a city where the president is overwhelmingly viewed unfavorably by voters, and push other Democratic officials toward Mr. Mamdani.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has not backed Mr. Mamdani, offered a preview on Friday, warning Mr. Trump to stay out of the race. “He should not be anointing the next mayor of New York City,” she said.
Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the Mamdani campaign, said the assemblyman was “running to serve New York, not do the bidding of an authoritarian president and his billionaire friends.”
While Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Trump tangled at various points during the first Trump presidency, the two men have known each other for more than 40 years and have had what the former governor privately joked was a “dysfunctional marriage.” Mr. Cuomo resigned as governor amid about a dozen accusations of sexual harassment in 2021, but has denied wrongdoing.
The Times reported last month that the two men had spoken directly about the race, citing people briefed on their call, but they later denied the account.
Mr. Adams opted out of the Democratic primary, in an apparent concession to his unpopularity among fellow Democrats who looked askance at his courtship of the president while the mayor was under federal indictment on corruption charges.
Mr. Trump’s Justice Department abandoned the case against Mr. Adams in February, saying it needed his help on the president’s deportation agenda. Mr. Trump, who was convicted of felony charges of falsifying business records and has insisted that he was prosecuted strictly for political reasons, has since said of that move, “I helped him out a little bit,” and that the mayor was “unfairly” pursued.
Now, both Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Adams are running on independent ballot lines, and their overlapping bases of support have effectively aided Mr. Mamdani.
Outside Gracie Mansion on Friday, the mayor had especially sharp words for Mr. Cuomo, who has been trying to push Mr. Adams out of the race. He called the former governor a “snake and a liar,” practically spitting out the words.
Ambassadorships are subject to Senate confirmation, a process that can take months or longer to complete. Given his history of corruption accusations and other scandals, Mr. Adams could face an uphill battle to confirmation, but Senate Republicans have generally deferred to Mr. Trump’s nominees.
The role of ambassador to Saudi Arabia is a significant posting that would give Mr. Adams access to new relationships globally. The position has often gone to a political figure, rather than a career diplomat, although many ambassadors have had some national security or foreign policy experience.
Were Mr. Adams to be nominated, he would represent a striking departure from the most recent ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Michael Ratney, a career diplomat who formerly served as the U.S. special envoy for Syria and the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem. He resigned in January.
Mr. Adams has traveled to the kingdom, something he noted on Thursday at an unrelated event celebrating the 1,500th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, where the mayor praised people of Muslim faith.
Mr. Trump has filled ambassadorships this term not just with his political donors, which presidents of both parties do, but with family members, such as the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ex-girlfriend of one of his son’s and a longtime Trump supporter.
Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
William K. Rashbaum is a Times reporter covering municipal and political corruption, the courts and broader law enforcement topics in New York.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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