Although Donald J. Trump is in Florida and plans to return to Washington D.C., he seems to be stuck in a New York state of mind.
He held packed rallies in the Bronx, Nassau County and Madison Square Garden, and his election victory saw him head straight back to Madison Square Garden to attend an MMA fight there, to great acclaim.
He’s been unusually friendly to the governor and both state senators (and they’ve been unusually friendly back). He keeps talking about how he wants to fix the subways and rebuild Penn Station. The Trump Organisation just announced it’s trying to regain control of Wollman Rink in Central Park. And he’s filled his new administration with New Yorkers (Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin, Howard Lutnick).
This is not written in Fox News or in Breitbart, but in the New York Times itself, which clearly has some understanding of which way the wind blows.
During his presidency, his name became a curse in Manhattan, according to writer Shawn McCreesh. He could barely set foot in Manhattan without protests erupting, and in 2019, Trump and his wife Melania officially moved to Palm Beach, Florida.
But those who know him say he never became a true Florida man.
– He’s a New Yorker – that’s what he is, that’s the first thing he is, says Cindy Adams, longtime New York Post columnist and Trump confidante.
The president-elect is such a big New Yorker, she said, that he even has a special phone line that can only be accessed by “a few super New Yorkers” that he trusts. She, of course, is one of them.</p
– I just spoke to him on his private number. I call him and he answers automatically. Nobody else answers that phone.
Billionaire John Catsimatidis thinks Trump misses his hometown, where he started his business. And his son Barron has just started his studies at New York University, instead of the University of Miami, for example.
Trump isn’t exactly loved in New York, but his support is growing. He received 30 per cent of the vote in the city’s presidential election, an increase of seven percentage points from last time. New York was hit hard by the Covid hysteria, without the tyrannical lockdown policy reducing the number of deaths, and is now experiencing the consequences of Biden’s headless immigration policy. This has probably served Trump well.
At the same time, crime is out of control, and people are tired of Soros-funded prosecutors letting serious criminals get away with it. More and more wealthy people are fleeing New York. The headline in this week’s New York Magazine says it all: “How Even This City Swung Hard Against Trump.”
Preacher Al Sharpton has been at loggerheads with Trump for decades, but even he has to admit, albeit reluctantly, that something special has happened.
– He was indicted and convicted, but it’s like: “Look at me now! It’s like that girl in high school who said no to you on prom night. You’ll always say: “What about me now? And I think that’s what he’s going through. I think he genuinely wants to be embraced by this city.
But Sharpton is a Democrat through and through, and thinks Trump will hurt himself by implementing policies that a majority of Americans support.
– I think he has a chance, but knowing him, he’s going to blow it with deportations and everything.
Trump has shocked his opponents in New York because he’s acted so friendly and nice to his political opponents, like Chuck Shumer (“He’s actually a good man, I hate to say it”) and Governor Kathy Hochul (“Good job. It’s not easy, right? But you’re doing it well. We need to get some money from the federal government.”). The question being asked now, of course, is: How long will this courtesy last?
The way Trump has behaved in New York may suggest that he actually wants to unite the US, but those of us who have followed Trump for a few years know that he can have trouble controlling himself. This is also one of the reasons why so many Americans love him, as a counterpart to the icy and cynical deep state.
But if Trump extends a hand, and enough Democrats accept it, the US could explode into a prosperity hardly seen since Reagan’s time, and this time without a costly Cold War squeezing the economy.
