Donald Trump served up a “Turkey” roast to Eric Adams at the Al Smith Dinner — and the mayor is gobbling it up.
The former president peppered the star-studded crowd at Thursday’s swanky white-tie event with jokes and gripes, including a zinger aimed at both Adams’ plant-based diet and alleged taste for Turkish graft.
“I’ve never met a person who’s a vegan who liked Turkey so much,” Trump said about Adams, who was seated nearby.
Adams laughed off the burn when asked about it Friday, describing it as par the course for the annual Catholic fundraiser, where muckety-mucks yuck it up at each others’ expense.
“This was an event where everyone’s ribbing each other, everybody’s joking, everyone’s laughing,” he said after a library opening in Queens. “That’s what the whole night is about.
“If you take that night seriously, that’s on you.”
Hizzoner has found little to laugh about in the weeks since he became New York City’s first sitting mayor to face a federal indictment.
Prosecutors accused Adams of defrauding taxpayers of $10 million in matching campaign funds and taking $123,000 in travel perk bribes from Turkish officials and nationals.
Adams pleaded not guilty and has subtly hinted the indictment stemmed from him calling the federal government out about the city’s migrant crisis — a characterization that Trump has been all-too-happy to endorse.
Both Adams and Trump have respectively subtly and explicitly cast their legal troubles as retribution from President Biden’s Department of Justice — a stance they’ve taken without providing evidence.
After Adams’ indictment, Trump claimed he predicted the mayor would face indictment for speaking out on the city’s migrant crisis.
Adams has responded by cozying up to Trump, even as he publicly supports Vice President Kamala Harris.
The mayor coyly hinted he’d “welcome” Trump’s support. Behind-the-scenes, he has also added Trump-linked lawyers to his defense team.
Some in Adams’ camp see a Trump victory in the 2024 presidential election as a way for the mayor to beat the federal bribery and corruption charges against him, The Post reported earlier this week. Trump, they believe, would appoint an Attorney General likely to scuttle the case.
“I don’t think it is far-fetched to say a Trump win could help Adams,” a source with direct knowledge of Adams’ legal strategy told The Post.
Trump offered more Turkey meat for Adams to chew on at the Al Smith Dinner.
“I was persecuted, and so are you,” he told Adams.
Adams, when asked by reporters about Trump’s persecution assessment, said to speak to the Republican 2024 presidential candidate’s spokesperson.
He then bristled about being mobbed by the press all speaking over each other to ask about his stance on Trump’s comments, and testily got in his car.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who appeared at the library opening with Adams, was asked whether the mayor should have disavowed support from Trump.
“I can’t speak for the mayor,” Richards said, before saying the Queens-raised Trump has been disowned by his home borough.
“Trump is a stain on this borough and a stain on this city. He is someone who, when he was in office, had anti-immigrant sentiments and rounded people up. Our communities in the world’s borough were in fear during that period.”
Asked by the Post what Richards made of Trump’s assertion both he and Adams were being persecuted, the borough president declined comment, adding: “But anything Trump normally says is laughable.”