New York, New York … why Trump can’t be a part of it

Returning home one afternoon last month, I spot a crowd gathered at the end of the street. Heading closer, it quickly becomes clear that this is a protest – and the target is unmistakable. As a helicopter hovers overhead and several heavily armed police stand by, protesters wave placards emblazoned with the words “Washed-Up Loser”, “Convict” and “Felon” – and Donald Trump’s face.

“Is he coming here?” a little girl watching on says loudly to her mother. “But everyone hates him!”

New York City is Trump’s birthplace, the metropolis where he made his fame and fortune. From Fifth Avenue to Wall Street, his name adorns skyscrapers that loom over some of its most prestigious streets. But even the youngest residents, it seems, are well aware of the disdain many locals feel towards the man who wants their vote this November. Just mentioning Trump’s name to a friend – a mild-mannered, born and bred New Yorker – elicits expletives.

A Siena College poll released on Tuesday found that 72 per cent of New York City voters viewed Trump unfavourably.

“We’ve polled on Donald Trump for more than a decade now, and among New York voters he was never popular prior to being president, he was never popular with New York voters while he was president, and he remains unpopular with New Yorkers,” says pollster Steven Greenberg. “He was a fixture in the city for decades before going into politics, before becoming a reality TV star. He was featured in the tabloids regularly throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. New Yorkers know Donald Trump, and their feelings are fairly well baked in.”

His inability to win over New Yorkers must surely grate on the former president. But, to be fair, the odds have always been stacked against him.

Former US president Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower. Credit: Getty Images

It’s been 40 years since the state of New York last voted a Republican into the White House. And New York City, where only 10 per cent of registered voters are Republican, is the centre of this Democratic stronghold.

Party loyalties aside, Trump’s character really seems to irk residents.

“Trump is from New York but not of New York,” says Lincoln Mitchell, a third-generation New Yorker and political analyst at Columbia University. “That kind of brash, affected, in-your-face stuff is not really what this city likes. He’s a rich kid who gets to play at being a tough guy. This is a city that is built on commerce and trade … and we know a conman when we see him.”

Then there’s his anti-immigration stance. Trump has proposed mass deportations and falsely claimed Haitian migrants had eaten their neighbours’ pets. Such policies and accusations have proven particularly antithetical to many in a city that has long welcomed immigrants.

Mitchell, whose great-grandparents migrated here from Belarus and Poland, says Trump’s idea that America is only “for white, Christian, straight people, particularly men”, did not reflect New York’s diversity and “demonstrates how out of touch Trump is with what this city is”.

Diversity comes up again when I ask barista Herbert Benjamin why he thinks Trump is unpopular here. “I kind of feel bad for the man,” says the 37-year-old. “I think it’s because of the culture – we’re very diverse. At the end of the day, we respect each other, and he’s not respectful to anybody.”

But you don’t have to go beyond the city limits to hear a different story. Inside Trump Tower on a recent Friday, tourists were happy to chat about the building’s owner.

Samantha, a 19-year-old who only wanted to give her first name, had just been shopping at the Trump Store with her mum, buying shirts and glasses to take home to Denver, Colorado. She’s relishing the chance to vote for Trump for the first time, and says most of her friends will vote for him too. “I’m very excited” she says.

An older couple from Ohio, who’d just had lunch at the Trump Cafe, didn’t want to give their names, either, but were happy to share why Trump will get their vote. “The economy was much better when he was in power,” says the woman, 62. “We’re afraid of what would happen if Harris was in charge.”

On the bottom level of Trump Tower, I find a New Yorker who’s willing to talk – a shop assistant behind the counter of the Trump Store, where you can buy everything from hats, cups and drink bottles to teddy bears and chocolates bearing Trump’s name. “I think he’ll be able to fix everything,” she says. “I’m 99.9 per cent sure that he will win.”

Such unbridled confidence would surely please her boss. “We are going to win New York!” Trump declared at a rally on Long Island the same night as the protest in my neighbourhood. “I’m the greatest of all time, maybe greater even than Elvis because Elvis had a guitar.”

Perhaps Trump will channel the King this weekend when he holds a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Elvis made history when he became the first entertainer to sell out four consecutive shows at the storied venue in 1972.

Whether Trump can make history by winning over New Yorkers this time round seems like a tougher task. While national polls suggest the presidential candidates are locked in an incredibly tight race, Kamala Harris is ahead of Trump by 19 percentage points in New York state in the latest Siena College poll.

“I never say never about anything any more but … I think if Donald Trump carried New York that would be particularly shocking,” says Greenberg. “It’s hard to imagine how any Republican, but particularly Donald Trump, could carry New York.”

Liz Gooch is an Australian journalist and editor based in New York.