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Days after the Donald Trump-Zohran Mamdani White House summit, analysis continues to pour in over the optics of the meeting. Pundits are still parsing the meaning behind the friendly chit-chat between two men who clearly don’t trust one another. Even the body language Mamdani employed as he stood smiling next to a gracious Trump, who sat behind the Resolute Desk, is open for discussion. Of course, for stand-up comedians like Jimmy Failla, the host of the eponymous “Fox Across Amerca with Jimmy Failla”, heard 9pm-midnight on WOR, the meeting is a treasure trove of comedy gold. Failla appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program and began with this keen observation: “Well, first and foremost, it wouldn’t be the holidays if somebody didn’t show up begging for money, so I wasn’t surprised by the optics.”
Failla offered a two-pronged approach to Trump’s handling of Mamdani: “The truth is, one, that Trump really can talk to anybody, and one of the points he made when they were asking him questions about all the names Mamdani’s called him, he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been called worse; I’ve been called everything’… But number two, I think part of this, too, was an effort by Trump to elevate Mamdani even more, because he does want him to be the face of the party, so I think you can have it both ways. Yes, Trump is rooting for New York, but he’s definitely not rooting for the Democratic party, and he knows socialism is kind of a national anvil for them, so I think there were two dueling motivations, if you will.”
Failla said Mamdani’s discomfort should be a public-service to all of us, especially in a couple of days: “The one take-away, and I really think everybody should hear this this week, is you really don’t have an excuse at Thanksgiving to not get along with that aunt or cousin who disagrees with you. If Trump can do an hour with Mamdani, we’ve got to be able to pass the rolls without clotheslining somebody.”
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