Bill Ackman Backs Adams for New York Mayor

Ackman said he wants someone with ‘enormous energy’ to take on Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference at City Hall in New York City, on June 26, 2025. Michael M. Santiago /Getty Images

New York City Mayor Eric Adams can pull off a victory in the November election if former Gov. Andrew Cuomo withdraws, said billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman in a July 3 post on social media platform X.

“The only candidates with a credible chance to beat [Zohran Mamdani] are Cuomo and Adams,” Ackman said. Mamdani is the Democratic mayoral candidate.

In his post, Ackman said that he had met with Adams and Cuomo, and his takeaway was that “Adams can win the upcoming election and that the Governor should step aside to maximize Adams’ probability of success,” adding that he had high regard for Cuomo’s contributions to the state.

“But it was abundantly clear in [Cuomo’s] body language, his subdued energy, and his proposals to beat Mamdani, that he is not up for the fight,” he said.

Ackman, meanwhile, had high praise for Adams.

“Mayor Adams is ready to go to battle, guns blazing with enormous energy and clarity on why Mamdani and his socialist/communist (‘We must seize the means of production') and anti-NYPD policies would be catastrophic for NYC. Adams is a great campaigner who can lead the grass roots effort needed to defeat Mamdani, and as mayor, he has a great platform to tell his story,” he said.

Cuomo resigned from the post of New York governor in 2021 after a sexual harassment investigation found him guilty. Cuomo denied the allegations and has never been convicted of criminal offenses.

Adams launched his reelection campaign on June 26. Though he won his first election as a Democrat, he is currently running as an independent. He said in April that this was because a corruption case filed against him was dragging on for too long for him to launch a primary campaign.

The case was brought on by the Justice Department during the Biden administration and was dismissed by a federal judge in April. Adams has maintained his innocence.

New York state Rep. Mamdani won the June 24 Democratic primary for the NYC mayoral post, with Cuomo conceding the race. He officially became the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor after primary results were published on July 1.

Despite the loss, Cuomo suggested he might still run for the post as an independent. Cuomo had announced the formation of a new political party in May.

The Epoch Times reached out to Cuomo for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.

Mamdani, who calls himself a democratic socialist, has made the cost of living a key talking point of his campaign. His proposals include city-run grocery stores selling items at low prices and making rides free on Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses. Mamdani has suggested raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations to pay for these programs.

The Democratic nominee has also proposed instituting a “rent freeze” that would prohibit raising residential rents for tenants.

Mamdani’s proposals have attracted criticism from Adams as well as moderate members of the Democratic Party, who call such policies fiscally irresponsible and unworkable.

Ackman highlighted many of Adams’s accomplishments while serving as mayor of NYC, including reducing crime, achieving job growth, taking steps to ensure affordable housing, and reducing income tax burdens on working-class New York citizens.

In an earlier post on X after Mamdani’s victory, Ackman said, “Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country. The ability for NYC to offer services for the poor and needy, let alone the average New Yorker, is entirely dependent on NYC being a business-friendly environment and a place where wealthy residents are willing to spend 183 days and assume the associated tax burden. Unfortunately, both have already started making arrangements for the exits.”

Trump’s Take

President Donald Trump, a native New Yorker, has criticized Mamdani for his views, calling him “100 percent Communist” in a June 26 Truth Social post.

“We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous,” he said.

On July 1, Trump responded to a question during a tour of a new immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that he'll look into claims questioning Mamdani’s immigration status in the United States.

Mamdani, of Indian descent, comes from Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen in 2018. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.

In a July 2 X post, Mamdani accused Trump of threatening to deport him.

“His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump urged Mamdani to “do the right thing” if elected to the post of NYC mayor, saying if he failed to do that, the city wouldn’t receive any funding from the federal government.