Witkoff said pushing Saudi ambassadorship for Adams in bid to beat Mamdani in NY race

Close advisers to US President Donald Trump and New York Mayor Eric Adams have discussed a plan to nominate Adams for ambassador to Saudi Arabia and end his reelection bid, The New York Times reported Friday.

The report came as the White House seeks to consolidate the opposition to Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani in the upcoming New York mayoral election in November.

The White House and a spokesman for Adams’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment, the Times said.

According to the Times, which cited four people familiar with the discussions, Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has been “actively pursuing” the matter, meeting with Adams in Florida earlier this week and speaking with people close to the mayor.

It was unclear if Witkoff had made a formal offer to Adams or offered the embattled mayor any other position, the Times said.

The sources cited by the Times said the talks could still fall apart, and the paper cited people close to Adams as saying they were unsure if Trump supported his potential nomination as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Among the factors that could influence Adams’ potential decision to take the job would be whether he could serve the rest of his mayoral term, the Times said.

The report was later confirmed by multiple US media outlets.

Unnamed sources confirmed to the NY Post that Trump’s Middle East envoy Witkoff was pushing for the US president to nominate Adams as the envoy to Saudi Arabia.

Adams, a Democrat, stated publicly this week that he wouldn’t drop his reelection campaign after reports he had been approached about potentially taking a job with the Republican White House.

Adams sat out the Democratic primary in June after he was charged in a federal corruption case. The Trump administration successfully moved to drop the case so Adams could better assist with the president’s immigration agenda, which freed up the New York mayor to run as an independent in the general election, but has not helped his image in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.

Mamdani has been the presumptive favorite in the election since beating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June. The 33-year-old state representative, whose campaign focused on cost-of-living issues, has drawn criticism from his rivals for his anti-Israel positions.

Cuomo, like Adams, is still on the ballot as an independent, while Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group, is running as a Republican.

On Thursday, Trump said he thinks Mamdani is likely to be elected unless two of his three major rivals drop out.

“I don’t think you can win unless you have one-on-one, and somehow he’s gotten a little bit of a lead,” said Trump, as he hosted a dinner at the White House with tech executives. “I have no idea how that happened.”

“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one, and I think that’s a race that could be won,” Trump added, without specifying which two candidates he would like to see drop out.

Asked by a reporter if he’d urged or encouraged any of the candidates in the race to drop out, Trump said: “No.”

According to the Times, Trump has indicated to several associates in private that he thinks Cuomo would be the strongest candidate in a one-on-one race against Mamdani. Polls compiled by the newspaper show the former governor trailing Mamdani by more than 10% while maintaining a strong lead over Sliwa and Adams.

The Times reported earlier this week that Trump’s allies have also discussed ways to convince Sliwa to step down in addition to Adams, but Sliwa has said he has no interest in a White House position and plans to stay in the race.

As mayor, Adams has struck a staunchly pro-Israel tone, and assailed Cuomo last month for statements critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Cuomo later sought to distance himself from those statements.

Should Adams accept a potential nomination for ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he would have to be confirmed by the US Senate. The position was most recently held by career diplomat Michael Ratney, who resigned in January.