The Eric Adams ambassadorship was a proposal reported in September 2025 and attributed to the presidential envoy Steve Witkoff: that the incumbent mayor of New York be removed from his own re-election race by being offered the American embassy in Saudi Arabia.[1]
The arithmetic behind it
Adams was polling at 10.6%, behind Curtis Sliwa on 16.6%, Andrew Cuomo running as a third-party candidate, and Zohran Mamdani on 38.2%. The object, as John Kiriakou and his host described it, was to clear the field so that Cuomo might beat Mamdani head to head.[2][3]
On Adams himself Kiriakou was careful with the wording and clear about the meaning: “I can’t say that he’s corrupt. I mean, I think it’s my opinion that he is corrupt and takes bribes” — and, he added, the opinion of most New Yorkers.[4]
Why he thought it would be tried
“I think it actually is likely,” Kiriakou said, “because Donald Trump’s not stupid.” He supplied two proofs of the premise: “if this was a stupid man, he’d be in jail right now”, and “if he was a stupid man, he wouldn’t be the first person to be elected president without military or political experience.”[5]
From there the logic is straightforward. Trump “knows that there’s not a prayer for Eric Adams to win this race”, so “what do you do? You offer him ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Why not? That’s going to make him happy. And the Saudis want a political appointee anyway.”[6]
The gain is marginal rather than decisive: even if Trump has already concluded Mamdani will win, removing Adams “at least forces Mamdani to spend some money” and lets the rest of the field coalesce. “It just makes it a little bit tougher.”[7]
Why he then doubted it
Later in the same conversation Kiriakou qualified himself, agreeing that Trump was not committing to the plan because he could see it failing and dislikes being laughed at. The general rule he applied: “Donald Trump does things that benefit Donald Trump. So how does this benefit Donald Trump? It doesn’t really.”[8][9]
He also doubted the plan’s premise. Mamdani had already reached the maximum permitted campaign contributions, was rising rather than falling in the polls, and “the more that they pay attention to him, the more that people like him in New York.” The establishment effort, in his view, was “counterproductive” — “it’s just blowback.”[10][11]