Eric Adams Is Mocked and Fact-Checked on X for Calling NYC the ‘Port-Au-Prince of America’

Mayor Eric Adams is being roundly mocked and fact-checked on X after he described New York City as ‘The Port-Au-Prince of America.’

The Mayor made the comment in an attempt to show solidarity with Haitians living in the city, with the Caribbean country in turmoil after crime boss Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier seized control, calling for a ‘bloody uprising’ to depose Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who announced his resignation on Monday.

New York City has the largest concentration of Haitians in the United States as well as one of the oldest established Haitian communities in the country with an estimated 156,000 living there.

‘We call New York City the Port-Au-Prince of America. We feel the pain our Haitian neighbors feel as the situation grows dire,’ the mayor wrote.

‘We feel the pain our Haitian neighbors feel as the situation grows dire. To the people of Haiti and our own Haitian community here in New York City, know that we stand with you today and always.’

But for all the good presumably intended by the mayor, the tweet was quickly ridiculed and received a ‘fact check’ annotation.

‘Readers added context they thought people might want to know: No one calls New York City the Port-Au-Prince of America,’ the notice read underneath the mayor’s tweet.

The community note was followed up with links to searches that showed no search results for the term.

The sentiment was echoed by X users responding to the mayor’s tweet.

‘I’ve lived here my entire life and I’ve never heard anyone say that,’ wrote HowlingMutant.

‘I’ve never heard anyone, anywhere, at any time, call NYC the Port-au-Prince of America,’ added Clifton Duncan.

‘Who the f*** has ever said that?’ asked Covfefe Anon.

‘I think you misheard people calling it the Port-a-potty of America,’ stated White Girl Problems.

‘Oh yes, can’t go a day without hearing NYC is Port Au Prince of the US or that Cincinnati is the Istanbul of the Midwest,’ joked another.

‘Eric, could you show us a single example – in audio or video or text – of someone referring to NYC as ‘the Port-Au-Prince of America?’ Before today,’ asked another.

User Kelly K performed a Google search to see if the phrase had ever been used.

‘Lots of replies saying that nobody calls NYC ‘the Port-Au-Prince of America’. A Google search for that term gave me 20+ results – but every single one of them referred to Eric Adams. When I searched for the phrase without Adams’ name, Google literally gave me ZERO results,’ they wrote.

Despite the mockery, Adams has been a supporter of the Haitian community.

During his eight years as Brooklyn Borough president, Adams’ celebrated Haitian culture holding Haitian Flag Day celebrations at Borough Hall.

In the spring of 2018, he stood with Haitian leaders in the city to officially designate a Little Haiti business district in Brooklyn.

Haiti’s capital was calm on Wednesday two days after the prime minister said he would step down, but the U.S. and UN began to withdraw staff in a sign they fear peace might not hold.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on Monday he would resign from his post once a transitional council takes over, following escalating violence by powerful gangs that has led thousands to flee their homes.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who met with regional leaders and representatives from Haiti’s government and opposition in Jamaica earlier this week, told reporters on Wednesday that he expects the transition council to come together in the next couple of days.

Caribbean leaders have detailed the sectors, political parties and alliances that will make up the nine-member council, but have not yet said who will be appointed to it.

However, Haiti’s most powerful gang leader, Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier, who had threatened to overthrow Henry, ‘dismissed’ the transitional council, the Miami Herald reported.

A day earlier, several dozen protested against the transition plan, burning tires in downtown Port-au-Prince, but the city was for the most part calm.

Henry traveled to Kenya last month to seal a deal to secure Nairobi’s leadership of a long-delayed security mission to fight the gangs, who the UN believes control most of the capital.

Violence escalated in his absence and he remained stranded in Puerto Rico when he resigned.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, an anti-immigration hardliner, said state law enforcement would deploy over 250 additional officers and soldiers and more than a dozen air and sea vessels to the southern coast ‘to protect our state.’

In Port-au-Prince, Haitians went about their business on Wednesday, with residents buying produce from street vendors and collecting water in containers. There was little sign of visible gang activity and no new attacks reported on key infrastructure or government offices.

However, MSC said it had suspended all shipping calls at Haiti’s main cargo port terminal, which it said remained ‘not fully operational’ after containers were looted. Shipments will be diverted to Caucedo in the Dominican Republic, it said.

Many details on the security force, such as how large it will be, who will contribute troops, its funding, and how it will operate on the ground, remain unclear.

Countries have been wary of intervening in Haiti, with Henry’s government viewed by many Haitians as corrupt, and following abuses by previous international interventions, including a sexual abuse scandal and cholera epidemic.

In Canada, like Haiti a former French colony, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised his country would remain ‘very, very active,’ without specifying commitments.

‘The international community has been intervening for 30 years in Haiti, and we are still finding ourselves in this impossible situation,’ said Trudeau. ‘We need to see Haiti’s political class come together and figure out a way to move forward.’

Haiti has long been impoverished and politically volatile but has become increasingly lawless since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, with the country’s outgunned police struggling to maintain security and with protests increasing against the unelected Henry.