On August 21, 2025, supporters gathered in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn for the seventh meeting of the Donald J. Trump Kings County Republican Club.
Dr. Naomi Wolf topped the lengthy list of speakers at the event, which included Teachers for Choice founder Michael Kane (who also covered the meeting on the Teachers for Choice Substack) and City Council candidate Athena Clarke. Both Kane and Clarke were New York City public school teachers before they were fired for refusing to comply with the Department of Education’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Dr. Wolf, who rose to prominence during the 1990s as a feminist author and commentator, has been an outspoken critic of New York City’s workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates since they were in effect. The former Democrat has recently thrown her support behind Athena Clarke and other candidates in NYC’s 2025 election who support the “Reinstate and Compensate” movement to reinstate City workers who lost their jobs under the mandates. Wolf is CEO of the website DailyClout, where she has been covering the election.
Founder Jimmy Wagner led the meeting, announcing new candidate endorsements and campaign events. Additional speakers included New York City Comptroller candidate Peter Kefalas, Brooklyn Borough President candidate Janine Acquafredda, and City Council candidates Luis Quero, Elijah Diaz, Jason Murillo, and George Sarantopolous.
The speakers addressed a full room, with many New York City workers who lost jobs under the City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates attending, along with regular club members.
A brief moment of controversy broke out at the end of the meeting, when former mayoral aspirant David Rem spoke up in favor of backing independent mayoral candidate and former governor Andrew Cuomo as the only viable opponent of Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, instead of Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Club members vocally rejected the suggestion to back Cuomo. While Sliwa is lagging in recent polls, the club and its featured speakers have consistently backed his candidacy. Sliwa in turn has made a campaign promise to reinstate City workers who lost jobs under the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and has publicly opposed the mandates since they were in effect.
