In a high-stakes mayoral race, Curtis Sliwa’s philosophy: ‘I treat the public like a moshpit’

With just six weeks until the pivotal Nov. 4 general election, Curtis Sliwa is not doing anything differently. For the local New York City celebrity – who is best known for his love of cats and his red beret, symbolizing his community-based crime-fighting group The Guardian Angels –  campaigning on the subway for nearly 20 hours a day, as he claimed, is just part of his daily routine. “I treat the public like a moshpit,” Sliwa told City & State. 

This “moshpit” approach is how the Republican nominee plans to tackle the role of mayor. Listening to everyday New Yorkers, or being “in the streets,” as he put it, is foundational to his “law and order” platform. He said he would ensure fair policing by observing New York City Police Department officers in the field, and that, as mayor, he would encourage more referendums to decide policy because he “trusts people.”

While his self-proclaimed love for the people has not so far been requited in the polls – Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani continues to be the front-runner in the race – Sliwa is still polling ahead of current mayor and independent candidate Eric Adams. Despite calls from fellow Republican President Donald Trump for Sliwa to drop out of the race in an effort to deter Mamdani’s projected win, the native New Yorker and talk show radio host said he is not backing down. Sliwa discussed this determination, his police-forward public safety plan, his plans for navigating the Trump administration, and his love for the environment in an interview with City & State. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  

You’ve openly defied Trump in this campaign. How would you navigate working with him if elected?

The only defiance that I’ve had of the president is that I refuse to drop out. I made that very clear, never in a conversation to him or anyone affiliated with him, but obviously publicly to what he had said, that he felt that two of the candidates should drop out and leave it to Cuomo and to Zohran Mamdani. And I said no, 1000 times no, I will not drop out. So I wouldn’t say it's defiance, because he cannot dictate who becomes mayor of New York City, nor who should stay in, nor who should stay out. I have said that I thought it would be much better if the president focused on more pressing issues that he has an impact on – the war in Ukraine, which continues to grind on, and most importantly, the war in Gaza, between Israel and Hamas, which has been a key point for Zohran Mamdani. In fact, for the first time, a New York Times poll indicates that New York City residents seem to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than the Israeli cause. So if he can bring peace to Gaza, he can definitely take one political plank away from Zohran Mamdani, who has used that effectively during the primary and will now use it in the general campaign, six weeks left. So I'm not dropping out, no matter who it is that asks me to drop out.

If you were mayor, would you order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu?

No, that's ridiculous. In fact, Zohran, by now if he didn't know, knows that he does not have authority to do that. It may generate headlines, but if we are to host the United Nations, we must understand our responsibilities, which is that leaders, world leaders, must really be able to come and go, regardless of how the world views them. … There are different ways that Zohran Mamdani can show his anger towards Bibi or his disagreement with Bibi, but if you were Jessica Tisch or any other police commissioner, you would basically have to reject his order to arrest Bibi Netanyahu. 

Given your role in The Guardian Angels, do you believe Mamdani’s proposed Department of Community Safety, which would deploy peers and mental health professionals to 100 subway stations, would be effective?

You must have police first and foremost. We are down significantly, we’re down to 32,500 cops that are asked to do extraordinary things beyond the call of duty. We just don't have enough police. That has to be the focus. … We need cops first, and then, if the budget allows it, you can hire mental health care individuals who are qualified to deal with people who have severe, emotional, disturbing situations that are a threat to themselves and everyone else. I deal with that all day with The Guardian Angels – that's our forte, dealing with emotionally disturbed and homeless. A social worker by themselves, they can, with a police officer, yes, but you need, first of all, police officers. We only have 32,500. My plan is to hire 7,000. You need at least 40,000 to have an impact on the growing crime problem in this city. A lot of it never makes the statistics. You have people like Eric Adams and Jessica Tisch saying crime is the safest we've ever been – not if you're a woman, the majority of the population, the majority of the workers, the majority of the home care providers, many of them are single parents who not only raise families, but sometimes who have two jobs. Talk to the women. They're constantly being perved on, sexually harassed in the streets and the subways. … So that's where I think I have a real good handle on it. Zohran does not. That's not his forte, that's not his strength.

It's climate week. Trump recently said at the United Nations that climate change is the “greatest con job.” Do you believe climate change is a hoax? 

Well, absolutely not. I do not believe that climate change is a hoax. I have been an environmentalist before there was even the term ‘recycling.’ I used to collect bottles, newspapers and cans. They didn't have the term ‘Earth Day’ let alone ‘recycling,’ they called you a junk man. So I've always understood we have to respect the Earth. I'm the only candidate who has said to the developers and realtors, ‘Keep your grubby hands off the parks and the wetlands. Nothing for you.’ We don't have enough parkland. The wetlands that we do we're increasingly losing them to development. No, no, no, no, no, we need more. The perfect example was the Elizabeth Street Garden. I and my wife, we took a stand. We said, look, we'll get arrested, civil disobedience. You can't bulldoze a beautiful park in the middle of this urban landscape to create affordable housing for senior citizens. There are other sites you can do that on. Well, guess what? Eventually they found those other sites. 

If you are elected mayor, how would you navigate the Trump administration's encroachment on major U.S. cities? 

Well, there's so many issues where the federal government is involved in activities in a city, so many issues because they supersede local authority, state authority. You have to pick and choose in this case, or any president, controls a lot of the funding. The Congress, the Senate, control a lot of the funding that we depend on. We've seen already cuts in food stamps. We've seen cuts in Medicaid. We know they are going to cut the (New York City Housing Authority) program. And then you have a $34 billion budget gap with the state that Tom DiNapoli has warned everyone about, which is going to affect us because of the trickle down effect. So you gotta be nice to everybody. You have to see how you can accommodate them. You don't want to shut the door. You don't want to be like a Cuomo – a “due facce,” we have that term in Italian, where he goes to his billionaire friends in the Hamptons, he says, ‘I talk to Trump, yeah, you know, yeah. We got to get rid of these other candidates.’ Then he comes into New York City, saying, ‘I'm the only guy who can stand up to Trump.’ You can’t go to war against Donald Trump. 

Do you think Rep. Elise Stefanik can beat Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026? What should she be doing differently? 

At least Stefanik, congresswoman from upstate, has been a good supporter of mine. Likewise, I support her. Politics is a little different. We don't agree on everything, but our state is in serious trouble. Hochul, look, even with the endorsement of Zohran, two weeks before, she’s with the billionaires in the Hamptons, ‘I support capitalism. I can never do it.’ Two weeks later, she's wondering, ‘If I get challenged by the left in a primary, that would zap my resources, even if I won against this juggernaut, Elise Stefanik, who has cleared the field, there's nobody going to challenge her in a Republican primary.’ So she made a political decision to support Zohran Mamdani, she'll suffer either the pluses or the minuses of that politically. … So I think there's a great opportunity. I win the mayoral term, which sets it up for Elise Stefanik, because if she can get 33-35% of the vote in New York City, where the bulk of the vote is, she's going to be the next governor.

If not you, which of the candidates would you most like to see as the city’s mayor?

They would all be a catastrophe. I look at them, all three of them are Democrats of a different type. There's Zohran Mamdani and most people really don't know him. He's Bill de Blasio, to me, on steroids. And then there's Cuomo, and there's Eric Adams. They’re Zohran-lite. Because they really agree, in some instances they disagree. But they agree that people should be able to vote who are not citizens. All three of them. I disagree. They agree that we should be a sanctuary city. I disagree. I would put it up for a vote, charter revision. I would say let's put it up, initiative and referendum. I believe, let the people decide. Hey, the people might decide we want to sanctuary. Gotta live with it. Maybe in two years, I put it back on the ballot for reconsideration, like they did term limits, and both times, the people voted for term limits. I trust people. I believe, let the people debate.