Mr. Bloomberg’s transactionalism — and interest in winning whatever contest he is part of — also has echoes of Mr. Trump’s approach. Mr. Trump, a garrulous entertainer, was a contrast with Mr. Bloomberg, a dry-humored businessman whose Massachusetts accent has never totally faded. By the time Mr. Bloomberg took office in 2002, Mr. Trump was not a builder in New York City so much as an entertainer, a brander and a licenser, and so had less business to conduct with Mr. Bloomberg than with two of the previous mayors, Mr. Giuliani and Ed Koch. Mr. Trump had a famously cantankerous relationship with Mr. Koch, but needed support from him and from Mr. Giuliani for his development projects. Mr. Trump, after backing Democrats when Mr. Bloomberg was running for mayor as a Republican in 2001, became a full-throated supporter of the new mayor, as their daughters Ivanka Trump and Georgina Bloomberg appeared in a documentary about children of privilege, lamenting the complexity of their lives.

Source: New York Times January 27, 2020 15:10 UTC