Real Housewives rocked by political scandal as Trump supporting star says she was made to look ‘crazy’

Former Real Housewives of New Jersey star Siggy Flicker has accused the show’s producers of making her look “crazy” after learning she voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Flicker, 57, starred on RHONJ for two seasons before quitting in 2017, and has since been an outspoken Trump supporter who regularly expresses her admiration for the president-elect on her social media accounts.

However, the reality TV star believes her political leanings have led producers to deliberately portray her as “a bad guy.”

“My first season was great, they showed me for who I am: emotional but loving and very interested in relationships,” she told DailyMail.com exclusively. “Then in my second season they had learned that I voted for Trump in the 2016 election, and the producers hated it.”

The mother of two, who is married to Michael Campanella, claimed things started to change when the production team came to her home for filming and saw her Make America Great Again merchandise.

She continued, “They came to my house and saw the MAGA hats everywhere and they basically asked me, you can’t seriously vote for Trump, he’s an anti-Semite and a fascist.

“That’s what they said to me – the only Jew in the cast and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. It was incredible. I said, ‘Yes, I’m voting for him.’

Flicker is the Israeli-born daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her father is the famous scholar Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, former director of the Israeli Holocaust Authority.

Reflecting on how the tide seemingly turned against her, Flicker continued, “That’s when everything changed for me in the editing room. They changed the edit so I suddenly looked crazy. They tried to get me to say things – that’s what they do…

“They absolutely hated that I voted for Trump and that’s why they painted me as a bad guy.”

Discussing some of the alleged tactics that producers allegedly tried to use to shape her story, Flicker continued, “You’re going to film, then they pause and a producer will whisper to you ‘say this to Teresa’ or ‘say this to Margaret’. [Josephs]’And I just wouldn’t do that.

The Why Am I Still Single?! The host then accused Bravo producers of reacting negatively to housewives they believe are Republican.

“They are terrible for every Housewife who is a Republican,” she claimed. “Look what they did to Ramona [Singer] – it was the same. I didn’t like it.’

In 2021, Singer, a longtime Real Housewives of New York star, clashed with new castmate Eboni K. Williams after the latter voiced her support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during the 2020 election.

When Williams asked her about her opinion, Singer emphasized that she “didn’t want to talk about politics,” which led to a heated argument between the pair.

Singer eventually went to her bedroom and threatened to leave her own apartment because of the tension.

“I’m going to take it a step further because you know what, I don’t want to do this. Not me,” the star said. ‘I like you. I don’t know you that well. I feel like you’re teaching me something, like you’re preaching to me.’

Singer left RHONY in 2021, and in November 2023 it was revealed that she would no longer star in the Legacy spin-off series, amid the backlash from a Vanity Fair article that alleged she used racial slurs during the production of its final season.

Flicker opened up about her own decision to leave the Housewives franchise and explained the reasoning behind her move to Florida.

“I wanted to get away from the spotlight,” she said. ‘I like to be more behind the scenes.’

Her new home meant she was perfectly positioned to join Trump at his election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach on November 6.

The star said the president-elect’s family watched and “loved” her during her time on Bravo.

She also revealed to DailyMail.com that in the years since she was first called out for her support of Trump, people have now been “flooding” her DMs to “apologize for judging her so harshly.”

A show insider denounced Flicker’s claim that her political views cost her a spot on the show.

“These statements couldn’t be further from the truth,” they said. “So many women on the show supported Trump then and so many women on the show support Trump now.

‘That had nothing to do with it. There is no bad editing. The way viewers saw Siggy is exactly who she is and that’s why she was kicked off the show.”

She also spoke about her relationship with her former RHONJ co-star Josephs and revealed that there is no love lost.

Viewers saw the pair clash in 2017 after Josephs made a comment about Adolf Hitler to Flicker.

Flicker, the only Jewish housewife at the time, confronted her about her alleged prejudices.

The pair had been discussing the treatment of others when Josephs told Flicker, “But Siggy, Hitler wouldn’t have killed me. Does that make him a good person?’

Tensions between the pair were never fully resolved and Flicker described Josephs as “the most evil person on earth.”

She continued, “She will do anything for the producers. They choose the weaker one, in every cast, the one who needs the job the most and they know they will do whatever is asked of them because they cannot afford to lose the job.”