New Yorkers have always soundly rejected Donald Trump

Where better to begin the downfall of Donald Trump than in New York City?

The Big Apple has long known their spurious son is rotten to the core.

It is perfect karma that the beginning of his end was dished out yesterday by the city that knows him best and despises him the most.

One of the first collages I created was back in 1994 was entitled “NYC on the Brink Election 1994” which if we look carefully shows a falling Trump. It feels right for today. Hand Cut Collage by Sally Edelstein

Trump was never a hometown hero and New Yorkers dismissed this vulgarian grifter long before American voters did, wise to this native Queen’s interloper who crossed the bridge to build his brand.

To outsiders, the Donald may have seemed like a quintessential New Yorker but he is in reality a non-New Yorker’s idea of a New Yorker.

A cocksure wheel dealer, his life was a cartoon version of a wealthy Manhattanite with an over-the-top gaudy apartment on Fifth Avenue,  gallivanting with models, and schmoozing with the rich and famous and powerful.

In reality, the brash, loudmouth from an outer borough was never accepted by the city’s elite. An anomaly, he did not fit into any New York cultural geography. In a tribal city, he had no real tribe.

In late 1999 Donald Trump spent time and money exploring the absurd notion that a shady real estate developer could win the presidency. It smelled like an opportunity- at least for publicity if not power. The N.Y. papers were not having it. Daily News Oct.31, 1999

But the Trump brand of chutzpah and hubris sold newspapers.

Lots of ‘em.

The tabloids love anything Trump.  Even if they often had little respect for him.

New York City tabloids created Trump, and magnified his wealth and cheap exploits giving him credibility and what he craved the most, celebrity.

The Trumps Divorce and Donald’s romance with Marla Maples were tabloid fodder in 1990.

N.Y. Post April 1990

Contemplating a presidential run in 1999 on the Reform party Trump wanted Oprah Winfrey as his VP pick. N.Y. Daily News Oct. 8,1999

The tabloids couldn’t get enough of Trump’s Theatrics.

For a con man with a bloated ego, all the press was pure catnip. They covered his wealth, his romances, his divorces, and his many exploits at Le Club, a private night spot whose whole point was to be noticed as powerful and beautiful and be photographed alongside a celebrity thus becoming one yourself.

Where is My Roy Cohen?

Roy Cohn and Donald Trump at Le Club, NYC Photo Sonia Moskowitz

It was at Le Club that his relationship with attorney Roy Cohen was forged. In 1973 a brash young would-be developer from Queens met one of New York’s premier power brokers Roy Cohn. Trump propelled himself into the city’s power circles and learned many of Cohn’s dirty unscrupulous tactics that would lead him to the White House.

He could use Roy Cohn today.

UnPresidented Charges

NY Post March 31, 2023, Trump Indicted for paying off Stormy Daniels

On Thursday, March 30 the same forces that turned Trump into a mix of caricature and fame resulted in him being the first ex-president in the history of the United States to be charged with a crime.

And it is that combination of chutzpah and hubris that might that could lead him to jail.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.