Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams has insisted that his taxpayer-funded trip to Albania is strictly about helping the Big Apple — and not about personal pleasure or future job opportunities.
The eccentric and scandal-prone mayor lifted off on Sunday for the small Balkans republic, just days after revealing that he would not run for re-election against Democratic hopeful Zohran Mamdani this November.
Adams was previously charged by federal prosecutors with accepting more than $100,000 in bribes from the government of Turkey, mostly in the form of free and discounted luxury travel and tourism entertainment.
Those charges were later dropped by the Trump administration, in what one Republican state prosecutor condemned as a “quid pro quo” in exchange for stricter immigration enforcement.
Still, a spokesperson told NBC New York on Sunday that Adams’s trip this week was strictly business.
“Over the next few days, Mayor Adams will travel to Albania, where he will meet with the prime minister, business and tech leaders, tour factories, and discuss new opportunities to boost economic activity and tourism to New York City,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson further said that Adams would be meeting with members of Albania’s parliament and government about potential investments and had been invited by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
His flights were paid for by the city of New York, while his ground transport and accommodation is being paid for by the Albanian government.
Albania is also where his 29-year-old son Jordan Coleman, an aspiring rapper, once competed in the country’s equivalent of American Idol.
As of last week, polls showed Mamdani strongly in the lead against both Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and former New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has also faced corruption allegations as well as claims of sexual harassment.
Roughly 40,000 of New York City’s 8.8 million residents identified as Albanian in the 2020 U.S. census. Adams hosted a celebration of Albanian culture at his official residence in June and hung out with Albania’s ambassador to the U.S. in August.
“I’ve accomplished so many things, but what I have not accomplished — and I am jealous of my son — he went to Albania and he performed there,” Adams told an Albanian T.V. anchor last month.
The New York Post reported the Trump administration had held backroom talks with Adams where it floated the idea of appointing him an ambassador if he and Sliwa both dropped out of the mayor’s race.
