Everyone ‘Got Played’: Curtis Sliwa Says Americans Were ‘Suckers’ Going Into Trump-Mamdani Meeting

Unsuccessful Republican New York City mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa told CNN on Friday he thought President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Democratic Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani proved that past barbs traded by the two men were all for show.

Mamdani’s defeated opponent expressed his view on “Laura Coates Live” that Americans “got played” as “suckers” by both the avowed socialist mayor-elect and the president, likening the duo of powerful New Yorkers to actors. Hours earlier, Trump and Mamdani met in the White House and held a discussion widelyreported as unexpectedly friendly and cordial, despite the two politicians’ starkly different ideologies and past comments about each other.

“Well, see, I’m the street guy and, as you know, Donald Trump did not support me to become the next mayor. And you’re gonna to find out why, because we just all got played for eight months,” Sliwa told Coates. He added later he felt “like the American people were turned into suckers” during Trump and Mamdani’s feuding.

“Everyone in the world, everyone in the country, everyone in New York City, got played by these two thespians, these actors because, remember, eight months ago, we thought it was Godzilla versus King Kong,” Sliwa continued. “There was Zohran Mamdani calling Donald Trump a fascist — he’s not. And then Donald Trump calling Zohran Mamdani a communist — he’s not.”

“Just recently, the president said, ‘I’m gonna to withhold $7 billion of badly needed federal funding for New York City if you elect Zohran Mamdani,’ and then Zohran Mamdani, on the night of his victory, turns and looks into the television and says, ‘Donald Trump, if you’re listening, turn up the volume,’” Sliwa told Coates, paraphrasing early November comments by both the