On the day after President Trump’s inauguration, Mayor Eric Adams’s deputy mayor for communications assembled officials from across city government to let them know that change was coming.
The deputy mayor, Fabien Levy, instructed agencies to highlight their work in a positive way, but signaled that they should not criticize Mr. Trump’s policies, according to three people who participated in the meeting in January.
Since then, Mr. Adams and city agencies have been unusually quiet on the flurry of Trump administration actions that have raised concern among many New Yorkers.
Mr. Levy created a “federal response tracker,” a spreadsheet to log statements and social media requests from agencies so that he and the mayor’s office could vet each request, according to two people familiar with the tracker. The spreadsheet has columns listing the agency, the federal issue in question, proposed language and whether it has been approved.
The mayor’s office has avoided discussing “Know Your Rights” guidance on how immigrants should respond to federal immigration officials and gender-affirming health care for transgender people, according to one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The tracker is consistent with Mr. Adams’s stance since Mr. Trump took office. The mayor said in January that he would not publicly criticize the president and told top aides in February to also refrain from doing so over fear that such criticism could provoke Mr. Trump to withhold federal funding for the city’s priorities.
Many institutions have already faced threats or actions from the Trump administration that jeopardized funding; Mr. Trump canceled $400 million in federal funds for Columbia University, prompting the university to make remarkable concessions to his administration, and has threatened major cuts for the subway.
But Mr. Adams may have more personal motivation. He has been accused of agreeing to a quid pro quo with the Trump administration: With the Justice Department moving to drop his five-count federal indictment, Mr. Adams would be free to help the president enforce his immigration policies. The mayor denies the corruption allegations and the assertions that he engaged in a quid pro quo.
Mr. Adams has argued that adopting a more pragmatic approach to dealing with Mr. Trump is wiser than risking antagonizing him, a stance others are beginning to adopt. Lawyers for NYU Langone Health, a leading hospital system in Manhattan, proposed removing references to “diverse students” and “systemic racism” from the hospital’s website last month to avoid funding cuts.
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, acknowledged that the mayor’s office uses a federal tracker as part of an organizational strategy to streamline media requests for the administration’s responses.
But she asserted that Mr. Levy “never said anything about not criticizing Trump” or his policies during the meeting in January and insisted that the mayor would “continue to be the first and loudest to advocate for New Yorkers.”
“Everyday New Yorkers aren’t tuning in to hear City Hall’s hot takes on Washington politics,” she said in a statement. “They want to know if their trash will be collected, if their kids will get a good education and if their neighborhood is safe.”
The mayor’s stance toward the Trump administration on immigration and other issues has angered many Democratic leaders in New York and led to the resignation of four deputy mayors.
It has also led to friction in his administration.
When the National Park Service eliminated references to transgender people from the website of the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan last month, many Democratic officials immediately expressed their indignation; Gov. Kathy Hochul called the decision “cruel and petty.” But Mr. Adams waited more than 24 hours before posting about its historical significance and offering general support for trans New Yorkers.
The mayor’s muted response was one factor that led members of the city’s Commission on Gender Equity to issue an ultimatum to Mr. Adams that they would resign if he did not lay out a strategy for defending transgender New Yorkers, women and immigrants.
Andrea Hagelgans, a member of the commission who was appointed by Mr. Adams and a former senior adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio, resigned, writing in a letter that the group had raised concerns over the mayor’s “troubling actions and statements” and was “met with silence.”
Sideya Sherman, the city’s chief equity officer, later responded with a five-page letter defending the mayor’s record, including noting that Mr. Adams signed an executive order in 2023 to protect gender-affirming care.
In January, when Mr. Trump signed an executive order seeking to prevent schools from recognizing transgender identities, city officials discussed issuing a strong statement to support transgender students or having the mayor film a video response in the Blue Room, according to emails obtained by The New York Times. Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services, signed off on some of the messaging, according to the emails, but no statement was made.
“Eric Adams has perpetuated a true bait-and-switch on New York voters,” said Christine Quinn, the former City Council speaker who runs a major homeless shelter network. “He ran as someone who supported sanctuary cities and supported the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and now he’s sold his soul to Trump and is attempting to erode New York City’s sanctuary status and is abandoning the transgender community at their time of need.”
Immigration has been the most fraught issue. The mayor, who once vowed that New York was going to be a “sanctuary city plus” under his leadership, has now called for weakening the city’s sanctuary laws and agreed to allow federal immigration officials at the Rikers Island jail complex.
Some city officials and advocates want the mayor to do more to support the 400,000 undocumented immigrants who live in the city and are anxious about mass deportations.
Instead, the mayor’s social media accounts have not posted about “Know Your Rights” information, and there have been few posts from city accounts.
Other elected officials, including the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, and Representative Adriano Espaillat, have posted “Know Your Rights” videos and held town hall meetings to raise awareness.
The mayor’s shifting tone has placed Manuel Castro, the commissioner for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, in a difficult position. Mr. Castro, a former undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was part of a group of young immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the United States as children.
When Mr. Castro testified at a recent City Council budget hearing, a council member asked him if Mr. Adams or senior officials had instructed him not to criticize Mr. Trump and his policies. He did not answer directly and signaled that his marching orders came from Mr. Levy.
“We continue to follow the instructions of our communications deputy mayor and the teams that are providing what we can and cannot share publicly,” Mr. Castro said.
Ms. Mamelak Altus called the questioning of Mr. Castro “shameful” and said that he “continues to stand up for immigrants in New York City, regardless of who is president, and the Adams administration intends to do the same.”