Bend The Knee

Eric Adams and Trump's new political vassals

It’s a pathetic spectacle: New York City Mayor Eric Adams sits on a couch next to Trump’s “Border Czar,” Tom Homan, on the set of Fox & Friends. The point of the joint interview is to demonstrate how closely the mayor is collaborating with ICE on immigration enforcement in the city. As the hosts close out the segment, Homan leans an arm over the Mayor, trying to get a last word in through the banter. Smirking, he declares, “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch, I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying where the hell is the agreement we came to?” Mayor Adams sits there chuckling, as if it’s just a friendly ribbing.

But it’s not. It’s a threat and a public display of domination. The Trump administration now owns Eric Adams. The Department of Justice dropped its corruption case against him while maintaining the right to resurrect it in the future. It did so explicitly to secure the Mayor’s cooperation with deportations, and, implicitly, with whatever else the administration might want from New York between now and the Democratic mayoral primary in June. Homan was reminding Adams and everyone else watching that he held a sword of Damocles over the Mayor’s head.

This is what the Trump administration has gotten out of the deal it made with Adams. What it has cost the President is the continuing service of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, and four other DoJ lawyers. All six resigned rather than go along with a scheme to exchange impunity for political loyalty.

The Department of Justice has always occupied a precarious position within the executive branch. It’s expected to be both loyal to the President and independent of politics at the same time. This is tricky enough under a normal presidency, and impossible under Trump. The President expects fealty, and he will get it.

But the rot will run deep.