Donald Trump is a known dealmaker with an impressive track record, but according to recent reports, he may be weighing a deal that doesn’t appear to carry much upside. The issue isn’t Trump’s proven ability to negotiate — he’s demonstrated time and again that he can not only outmaneuver opponents but also secure agreements that skeptics dismissed as impossible. His history of turning difficult situations into decisive wins is well established, which makes the rumors of this particular deal all the more puzzling.
As PJ Media’s Stephen Green previously reported, Trump advisors are floating the idea of offering federal positions to Curtis Sliwa and Eric Adams to clear the field for Andrew Cuomo's mayoral bid to decrease the chances of Democratic-socialist Zohran Mamdani winning the mayoral election.
It's a fascinating political chess game, but one has to wonder if the effort is worth the trouble. After all, we're talking about choosing between two flavors of disaster for the Big Apple.
The strategy has been brewing for weeks and is gaining momentum as November approaches. Trump's intermediaries have reached out to Adams' camp about potentially stepping aside, though those conversations remain fluid and noncommittal. Meanwhile, they're testing whether Sliwa might bite on a Washington position, despite his repeated public statements that he has zero interest in federal work.
The driving force behind this maneuvering comes from major New York real estate executives who are understandably terrified of what a Mamdani administration might bring. They've seen the writing on the wall in other cities where socialist policies have taken root, and they're desperately trying to avoid that fate for New York.
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Interestingly, some Republicans in Washington view this differently. They actually think a Mamdani victory could be a gift that keeps on giving, showcasing Democratic extremism just in time for the midterms.
It’s a fair argument, but Trump doesn't buy into that strategy. Despite relocating his official residence to Florida in 2019, he still considers New York home and remains deeply invested in the city's future. But here's the uncomfortable truth that nobody wants to say out loud: New York City might be beyond saving regardless of whether Mamdani or Cuomo wins the race.
We've watched this movie before in cities across America. Socialist policies have turned once-magnificent places like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco into cautionary tales of urban decay. These cities now showcase the inevitable results of left-wing governance: skyrocketing crime, rampant homelessness, and business flight that would make a horror movie director proud.
Cuomo may not be a socialist, but he’s no moderate either. His brand of leftist politics has already done enormous damage to New York, and his disastrous COVID record alone stands as a cautionary tale. I have little confidence he’d be much better than Mamdani. Sadly, New York City voters have long been complicit in their city’s decline, and it may take a painful wake-up call for them to see the error of their ways.
Since Rudy Giuliani left office in 2001, New York has steadily unraveled under mayors who abandoned the tough, results-driven leadership that once restored safety and order. Michael Bloomberg leaned into the nanny-state, Bill de Blasio dismantled policing and fueled homelessness, and Eric Adams, who was supposed to fix things, ended up largely continuing de Blasio’s failures. The result is a city plagued by crime, overwhelmed by a migrant crisis, suffocated by high taxes, and losing residents and businesses. Against that backdrop, Cuomo might look preferable to Mamdani, but the truth is he’s not much of an improvement.
So Trump's calculation makes sense from a damage-control perspective. If you have to choose between a slow-motion disaster and a high-speed collision, most reasonable people would pick the slower option. Cuomo might drive the city off a cliff, but at least he'd use the brakes occasionally. And, as Stephen wrote, in a head-to-head match-up, Mamdani still has the edge. So, there’s a high risk and a low reward. In the end, New York City voters are content to vote themselves off a cliff, and maybe we just have to let them.
Until they recognize the connection between their voting patterns and their city's deteriorating condition, all the backroom dealing in the world won't change the fundamental trajectory.
