New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his former political rival Curtis Sliwa shared a jab and a smile.
Hizzoner and the Guardian Angels founder rolled up their sleeves on Friday for a photo-op promoting the city’s campaign to encourage residents to get their seasonal flu shots.
The duo traded barbs and held hands as the vaccines were administered at a medical facility in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, with the former Republican candidate sporting his trademark red beret and the charismatic Democrat leader clad in a shirt and tie.
(Video: YouTube/Eyewitness News ABC7NY)
“This is not the kind of shots we used to give one another,” Sliwa told Mamdani, who pulverized him last November.
“You know he got more votes than me, he’s more popular than me,” Sliwa joked as he rolled up his sleeve. “But you don’t have bigger muscles.”
The scrawny Mamdani agreed.
“I know about getting shot,” Sliwa told the mayor, recalling how he was shot five times back in 1992.
“I’m supposed to be a tough guy,” the Guardian Angels founder said as he prepared to receive the jab.
“I can hold your hand,” Mamdani offered.
“What happens if I faint?” Sliwa said, to which the Uganda-born Muslim socialist assured him, “I’ve got you.”
After getting jabbed, Sliwa held up the button he received and joked, “Can I get on the subway with this instead of an OMNY card? Come on, Mr. Mayor.”
The bipartisan vax promotion caught the attention of X users, one of whom opined that the duo’s chummy camaraderie will trigger MAGA & MAHA despite being one-time political foes.
This Video will TRIGGER both MAGA & MAHA:
✅ Silva and Mamdani together
✅ Hand in Hand
✅ Getting FLU VACCINE
✅ Laughing pic.twitter.com/gcDsdaSAbd— Dr Ahmad Rehan Khan (@AhmadRehanKhan) October 2, 2026
Others also weighed in.
Get a room already!
— Daniel Shaver (@DanielPShaver) October 3, 2026
This is how Mamdani won. Sliwa was a stooge working for the commies. https://t.co/dAUt5bgx1F
— J U L E S (@JulesJudea) October 2, 2026
You may as well kiss at this point
— Somsak (@mekhongnsmokes) October 3, 2026
Oh look, it’s the red-green alliance.
— Meredith (@Opportunitweet) October 2, 2026
Mamdani holding Sliwa’s hand is cute political theater, but New Yorkers will pay for the policy disaster after the cameras leave.
— Unfiltered N’ Raw (@UnfilteredNRaw) October 2, 2026
Birds of a feather. Massive grifters. There is a reason Sliwa didn’t drop out, every campaign war chest funds his family for the next 4 years. This picture needs to be saved for the next election.
— FeechPeach (@FeechPeach) October 2, 2026
“rival”?
He was working with him the full time to draw votes away from Cuomo
— jack frost (@lemurtalk) October 2, 2026
The other participant in the mayoral contest, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, did not participate despite being treated like a hero during the COVID-19 pandemic before he was forced out of office amid a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations.
Mamdani defeated both men, capping off a miraculous rise from an obscure assemblyman to the mayor of America’s premier city, finishing with 50.8 percent of the vote to Cuomo’s 41.3 percent, with Sliwa bringing up the rear at a measly 7 percent.
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