Did billionaires try to buy their way into New York City’s mayoral election with a jaw-dropping $10 million offer?
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa dropped a bombshell on the My Expert Opinion podcast, claiming he was offered $10 million by billionaires to exit the NYC mayoral race to boost Andrew Cuomo’s odds against Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who clinched victory on November 4, 2025, while Sliwa also accused outgoing Mayor Eric Adams of corruption for possibly taking an even larger bribe to drop out in September 2025.
According to the Daily Mail, the race was a heated showdown among Mamdani, Cuomo, Sliwa, and Adams before Adams bowed out, leaving a contentious field where Sliwa, ultimately earning just 7.1 percent of votes, faced intense pressure from Cuomo supporters accusing him of siphoning votes that aided Mamdani’s win.
Sliwa’s revelation, previously hinted at in a New Yorker profile, detailed seven separate offers totaling $10 million, a bribe he staunchly refused, though he’s kept mum on the identities of those behind it, only noting high-profile nudges to step aside from figures like President Donald Trump, donor John Catsimatidis, and The New York Post editorial board.
“I have armed security now. After the billionaires bribed me with $10 million to drop out of the mayoral race, I said no,” Sliwa declared on the podcast. A bold stand for integrity, though in a city leaning hard left, one wonders if such principles even register amid the progressive tide that swept Mamdani to power.
Post-bribe, Sliwa hired armed security of former NYPD officers after receiving death threats to himself and his wife, a precaution he never took even after surviving a 1992 shooting in a cab, citing distrust in current officers who he believes would relay his words to Adams.
Turning his fire on Adams, Sliwa speculated the mayor held out for a better deal, estimating Adams was offered at least double his own $10 million to withdraw in September 2025, a claim yet unanswered as The Daily Mail awaits comment from Adams’s office.
“Politics is the dirtiest business there is,” Sliwa stated, adding that Adams was “so corrupt” as mayor. From a conservative vantage, this rings true—backroom deals and power plays seem to define urban politics more than serving the public, though fairness demands evidence before fully condemning anyone.
Sliwa even cautioned Mamdani to watch his words around officers, alleging Adams would eavesdrop through loyalists, a street-smart warning that paints a grim picture of trust within city governance.
In the end, Mamdani triumphed with 50.4 percent of the vote, outpacing Cuomo’s 41.6 percent by 181,056 votes, while Adams, despite exiting, lingered on the ballot with a negligible 0.3 percent, and calculations show even if Sliwa’s supporters had backed Cuomo, Mamdani still would’ve won, albeit by a slimmer margin.
Cuomo’s campaign, running independently, was fueled by hefty billionaire backing, including $8.3 million from Michael Bloomberg to the Fix the City super PAC, $3 million from Airbnb’s Joseph Gebbia, $1.75 million from Bill Ackman, and $1.2 million from the Tisch family, per Forbes. A Forbes breakdown revealed 26 billionaires or their families donated at least $100,000 each to Cuomo, a financial juggernaut that still couldn’t halt Mamdani’s ascent, signaling a shift toward far-left policies that many conservatives view with alarm.
From a right-leaning perspective, Sliwa’s allegations spotlight a disturbing trend of moneyed influence in politics, a game where principle often loses to power, especially as a socialist like Mamdani takes the reins in a city already battered by progressive experiments.
Yet, empathy compels recognition of the intense pressures all candidates face, though Sliwa’s 7.1 percent showing suggests conservative voices struggle for traction in urban strongholds, a challenge for those fighting against a tide of controversial policies.
Ultimately, this tale of alleged bribes and bitter rivalries underscores a broken system where trust is scarce—perhaps a wake-up call for New Yorkers to demand transparency over backroom dealings, though with Mamdani’s win, the path ahead looks more like a leftward lurch than a return to bedrock values.