The New Yorkers who decide to tune in to watch Donald Trump be sworn into his second term in the White House might glimpse a familiar face in the crowd. Mayor Eric Adams will be in attendance at the inauguration in Washington, D.C. in another sign of the burgeoning relationship between the two men.
Though Adams sat down with Trump in Florida just three days ago City Hall is signaling that the invitation was a last-minute one. Politico reports that Adams received the invite to the nation’s capital from Trump’s team just before 1 a.m. Monday morning and that the mayor then drove to Washington, D.C. around 3 a.m. He is set to return to the city following the ceremony, though the schedule doesn’t indicate any plans to attend any additional events after Trump is sworn in.
“In the early hours of Monday morning, the Trump administration reached out inviting Mayor Adams to attend the inauguration at the incoming administration’s request. Mayor Adams accepted on behalf of New York City,” Fabian Levy, the deputy mayor for communications, wrote on social media Monday morning. “As the mayor has repeatedly said, America has chosen a new national leader and we must work together to build a safer, stronger, and more affordable in New York City.”
There was no previous indication that Adams had planned to attend the inauguration. City Hall released Adams’s public schedule for Monday shortly after midnight, showing a pair of morning events to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as an afternoon appearance on a news program about Trump’s inauguration. A revised schedule issued a little more than seven hours later removed those events and now included Adams’s slated appearance at the inauguration at noon.
In a social media post, Adams acknowledged his trip to Washington, calling Inauguration Day a “sacred American tradition.”
“On MLK Day, like Reverend Dr. King said, we must put partisan politics aside to do what’s best for our country. I believe there’s much we can achieve working alongside the federal government as we support our city’s values and fight for New Yorkers,” he said.
Adams’s attendance comes amid growing speculation that he is angling for a pardon from the incoming president ahead of his trial in April on federal charges of bribery and campaign-finance crimes. In a statement released following his Friday meeting with Trump, Adams was emphatic that he did not discuss his legal case, and that their conversation was focused on how the federal government can best help New Yorkers.
In an interview with NY1 earlier this month, Adams indicated an openness to attending Trump’s inauguration. “If it’s possible for me to get there, I look forward to it. If not, I will send my congratulations. I look forward to governing with the incoming president,” he said.
