The Mayor Talks a Good Game

Can Eric Adams get by on bluster alone?

- By Ian Parker. Photograph by Mark Peterson

Mayor Eric Adams's exuberant self-regard stops just short of biceps-kissing. He has talked in public about the warmth of his own smile. Describing "Healthy at Last," a book that he published in 2020 about his disciplined response to a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, Adams told a podcast host, "Every time I read it, I find another nugget, and say, 'Wow! This was a good point that I made.'" Adams once told an audience, "I get out of the shower sometimes and I say, 'Damn!'" He has said that he is the face of a new Democratic Party.

On a recent Sunday evening, Adams-who is sixty-two and was born in Brooklyn, although he has sometimes said that he was born elsewhere-was in a restaurant on the Upper West Side. His shirt was white and uncreased, and he wore a stud earring, an adornment that he adopted while running for mayor. He removes the stud ahead of events likely to have a more serious tenor, as if lowering a flag to half-mast. Adams ordered French fries and, unprompted, said, "This is going to be one of the most fascinating mayoralties in history." He later added, "Anyone who believes there's not a God, they need to watch my journey."