Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 7

Michael Rapaport Softens Tone on Trump After Oct. 7 Hostage Crisis, at 56 Citing Israel

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 7

Michael Rapaport Softens Tone on Trump After Oct. 7 Hostage Crisis, at 56 Citing Israel

Q: Beyond a 'street fight' mentality, what are Rapaport's concrete policy solutions for New York City?

Rapaport has not publicly presented a detailed mayoral policy platform. Based on the available reporting, his campaign talk remains mostly rhetorical rather than programmatic. What he has said amounts to broad goals: he wants New York City to be safer, more affordable, and “thriving.” He has also said that under his leadership “nothing” would be free, suggesting a tougher approach to city spending or subsidies, but he has not explained how that would work in practice or which programs he would change. His public comments have focused more on attacking current city leadership and promising a combative governing style than on laying out specific plans for housing, policing, transit, schools, sanitation, or budgets. One report specifically noted that in a television interview he did not outline policies or concrete changes he would make as mayor. There are hints of issue priorities. He has criticized city and state leaders over public safety, disorder, anti-Israel protests, and basic city management such as snow removal and post-event violence. But those criticisms have not yet been matched by a developed set of proposals, timelines, or funding plans. So, beyond the “street fight” message, the clearest answer is that Rapaport has so far offered only general promises—safer streets, lower costs, a more functional city, and less reliance on free services—without a substantive policy blueprint.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 7

Michael Rapaport, 56, said on Jamie Kennedy’s podcast that he stopped publicly insulting Donald Trump after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and the ensuing hostage crisis.
Rapaport said his shift came from believing Trump offered the best chance to bring hostages home and defend Israel’s right to exist, even though he still finds the president frustrating.
Nine trips to Israel in the past 2½ years and conversations with hostage families, he said, made him more informed about world politics and convinced him he had been wrong to speak so loosely before.
The comedian said critics have pressed him over the change, but he no longer wants to “carry the torch” of attacking Trump and instead draws a line against political violence more broadly.
That repositioning comes as Rapaport has also floated a 2029 New York mayoral run aimed at defeating Zohran Mamdani with what he called a “street fight mentality.”