Former President Donald Trump made light of the federal charges against Eric Adams and suggested the New York City mayor was targeted for political reasons during his huge MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Trump claimed to nearly 20,000 supporters that Adams “has been treated pretty badly” because Hizzoner spoke out about the migrant crisis that has engulfed the Big Apple for much of his tenure.
“You know, when he said that this whole thing with the migrants coming into New York, this is just not sustainable. You know, we can’t do it. We’re trying to run a city, we got 100,000 migrants coming.” Trump said. “We can’t do it, we just can’t do it, it’s not feasible, it’s not good.”
“He said it very nicely,” Trump continued. “I said, ‘well, he’s going to be indicted by these lunatics for saying that.’ A year later, he got indicted.”
When Trump first thanked Adams, there were few cheers for the Democrat — but even more boos.
Adams was hit with five charges last month in the historic corruption case brought against him by Manhattan federal prosecutors. There is no evidence Adams was indicted for his concerns about the migrant crisis, though he also asserted when news broke of the indictment he was being persecuted by the feds for speaking out about the influx of migrants.
Adams, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of raking in free and upgraded flights courtesy of Turkish businessmen in exchange for favors dating back to 2016, which Trump mentioned during his wide-ranging address.
“I think they upgraded his seat in an airplane. That’s a very serious charge,” he quipped to some laughter from the crowd.
“They’ve upgraded my seat a lot, too. I used to fly commercial. I don’t fly so much anymore, but they’d see me back there and sure, would you like an upgrade,” Trump went on to say. “I don’t know, maybe it’s something else.”
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Trump also said Adams has been “really great” after the mayor defended the Republican nominee on Saturday over Democrats calling the presidential candidate a “fascist.”
“I have to tell you he’s been really great and he said they shouldn’t be calling Trump a dictator because it’s not true,” Trump said. That’s nice … very nice.”
The maximum-capacity rally at Madison Square Garden comes roughly a week before Election Day and as early voting has already started across the country.
