“The purpose of the meeting was for me to assert to him the concerns and the needs of all New Yorkers,” the mayor said somberly, after a 62-minute meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon. “My job as mayor is to be their voice and to give him perspective on what New Yorkers are feeling right now, what their concerns are, what their fears are.”
The cable networks carried his comments live, and over the next 12 hours, de Blasio — the first Democratic official to secure an in-person meeting with the president-elect — made the rounds on MSNBC, CNN, and even Fox News.
After a humbling 2016, in which the mayor failed to parlay his signature issue of income inequality into a broad progressive movement, Trump’s surprise victory has given de Blasio a do-over in his quest for national relevance.
His day job has taken on broader significance, as he threatens to openly defy the president-elect on issues from immigration to policing, and the specter of Trump has helped imbue the mayor’s re-election campaign with a newfound urgency.
It has also presented de Blasio with an opening to influence a soul-searching Democratic Party desperate to reformulate its economic pitch.
