Trump dismisses Sliwa as cat-loving lightweight in NYC mayor race

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Sep 12, 2025

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NEW YORK — President Donald Trump Friday dismissed Republican Curtis Sliwa as a cat-loving lightweight who has little chance of winning the New York City mayor’s race against Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.

Riffing on Sliwa’s well-known penchant for felines, Trump said the GOP standard-bearer does not have the gravitas to beat Mamdani in deep-blue New York.

“I’m a Republican, but Curtis is not exactly primetime,” Trump said on the Fox & Friends show. “He wants cats in Gracie Mansion… We don’t need to have thousands of cats.”

Trump repeated his suggestion that Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams should drop out of the contest to give ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, a better shot at beating Mamdani in the November general election.

“I think they need to have one candidate,” Trump said. “And it would look to me like Cuomo, frankly, is leading the other two.”

Still, Trump expressed scant hope that anyone can defeat Mamdani, even if the three other major rivals unite behind a single candidate.

And he said Mamdani’s strong support amounts to a “rebellion” against the status quo.

“Maybe one-on-one someone could beat him…but it would look like he’s going to win,” he said. “And that’s a rebellion.”

Sliwa and his wife share a 320-square-foot studio apartment on the Upper East Side with 15 rescue cats.

The GOP candidate has said he won’t drop out of the race. He won 27% of the vote in a losing 2021 Republican campaign against Adams, who was the Democratic nominee in that contest.

Cuomo, who was trounced by Mamdani in the Democratic primary, says he is the only rival with a realistic chance of beating the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist in a general election.

Adams, who is polling in single digits, admits he is assessing whether to stay in the race. He reportedly met with Trump aides recently to discuss taking a job in the administration in exchange for dropping out, but the talks did not bear fruit.

Even as Trump appeared close to throwing in the towel in the mayoral race, the president hinted that he would continue to be a thorn in Mamdani’s side if the youthful Queens assemblyman completes his remarkable and meteoric rise to City Hall.

“I call him my little communist, my little communist mayor,” Trump said. “But you know he’ll have to come to Washington for money, a lot of money.”