Even though Donald J. Trump is cloistered in Florida and planning his return to Washington, it seems like he has been stuck in a New York state of mind.
He went out of his way to throw rallies in the Bronx, Nassau County and at Madison Square Garden, and then, after winning the election, he went right back to the Garden to watch a fight there. He has been uncharacteristically friendly toward the governor and both of the state’s senators (and they have been uncharacteristically friendly back). He keeps talking about how he wants to fix the subways and rebuild Penn Station. The Trump Organization just announced it is trying to get back control of Wollman Rink in Central Park. And he has been stocking his new administration with New Yorkers (Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin, Howard Lutnick).
This thaw follows a decade-long freeze in which Mr. Trump was reviled in his hometown. During his presidency, his very name became tantamount to a curse in Manhattan. He could barely step foot on the island without protests erupting. In 2019, he and his wife, Melania, officially switched their residence to Palm Beach, Fla. But those who know him say he never really became a Florida man.
“He’s a New Yorker — that’s what he is, that’s the first thing he is,” said Cindy Adams, a longtime New York Post columnist and Trump confidante. The president-elect is such a New Yorker, she said, that he even has a special phone line that can be reached only by “a few super New Yorkers” he trusts. Naturally, she is one of them. “I just talked to him on his private number,” she said. “I call him, and he answers it automatically. Nobody else answers that phone.”
John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of the Gristedes grocery store chain who has known Mr. Trump for many years, said simply: “I think he misses New York.”
He pointed out that Mr. Trump’s son Barron just started school in the city. “He could have sent him to the University of Miami,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “Why did he send him to N.Y.U.?” He said that becoming such a hated figure in the city definitely got to Mr. Trump. “He was disappointed that New York didn’t love him back,” he said.
