Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has landed back in the headlines—and this time, it’s not for his politics, but for a profanity-laced confrontation caught on camera at a Texas airport.
Adams was filmed in a heated exchange with a masked woman shortly after stepping off a flight from New York to Dallas. The woman appeared to be attempting to provoke him, saying, “I would love it if you punched me in the face.” Adams, without hesitation, fired back: “I’m not mayor anymore, you can go f*** yourself.”
The back-and-forth didn’t stop there.
The woman responded with more profanity, and as Adams walked past, he added, “You’re gonna see the Brooklyn in me,” a clear reference to his well-worn tough-guy persona. She fired back again, mocking his appearance and saying she was glad not to see his face anymore. Adams coolly replied, “That’s nice,” and disappeared into the airport.
“I’m not mayor anymore. Go fuck yourself,” former Mayor Eric Adams says to another passenger, according to a video circulating on Reddit.
“You’re gonna see the Brooklyn in me.”https://t.co/0smSBBWt3k pic.twitter.com/oNE3V5DUF4
— Josefa Velásquez (@J__Velasquez) January 13, 2026
The incident quickly gained traction online, with footage first shared to Reddit. Adams’s spokesperson, Todd Shapiro, defended him, claiming the clip was “selectively edited” and that Adams, now a private citizen, was being harassed.
Adams himself appeared to double down, sharing a story about the incident on X with a single-word caption: “Exactly.”
But the timing couldn’t be worse. Just days earlier, Adams reappeared in the public spotlight for a different kind of controversy—this time involving a cryptocurrency venture called “NYC Token.”
Launched in Times Square, Adams billed the token as a tool to fight antisemitism and anti-Americanism. The coin initially soared to a market cap of around $580 million before crashing under $100 million within days, triggering accusations of a “rug pull”—a scheme where insiders cash out after pumping the value, leaving investors high and dry.
Adams has remained silent on those allegations, and his precise role in the project remains unclear. Representatives for NYC Token denied any wrongdoing, claiming the fluctuation was due to rebalancing liquidity and that no team members sold off their holdings.
Still, the optics of a fiery airport spat and a crypto crash in the same week raise serious questions about Adams’s judgment in and out of office. Once the face of the city’s post-pandemic recovery, he now finds himself at the center of viral controversy and financial scrutiny—all while insisting the “Brooklyn” in him hasn’t gone anywhere.
