Editorial: This guy and this city: Trump and his old home, NYC

Something’s happening here, and what it is, is pretty clear: Donald Trump’s decisive victory included a rising share of New York City voters, where he was born and raised and lived his whole life until five years ago when he declared Florida as his home.

Nearly a third of voters in the five boroughs went for Trump— far more than did in 2016 (18%) or 2020 (23%). That included 37% of Queens, the most diverse county in America and a place where the value of immigration is deeply interwoven into almost every street. Trump got 28% of Brooklyn’s vote, 17% of Manhattan’s, 27% of the Bronx’s, and of course 64% of Staten Island’s.

Put another way: In a city in which two-thirds of registered voters are Democrats and another 20% are independents, a decent share of both groups shaded in the bubble for him.

America chose Trump, and New York City, which is part of America, shifted surprisingly toward him. It’s more important to recognize and honestly reckon with political reality than to close eyes and ears.

The job now of New York’s political class is to ensure that Trump’s worst policies do as little damage as possible to the people of the city without reflexively rejecting every single thing Trump and his Republican allies in the House and Senate propose simply because they are the ones proposing it.

When we refer to “the people of the city,” that includes a half-million or so undocumented immigrants, as well as asylum seekers who, though often called “illegals” by Trump and his allies, are anything but. That latter group generally passed a first legal hurdle, gaining permission to stay in the country while awaiting adjudication of their claim — which, thanks to a broken immigration system, typically takes years. They cannot and must not be rounded up and sent back.

Nor should those who truly lack permission to be here but are otherwise law-abiding, contributing members of society. They help raise our children, build our buildings, deliver our food and do so much more. The Dreamers here under DACA have built complete lives and families. A mass deportation operation would not only cost the federal government tens of billions of dollars; it would be an economic disaster as well as a humanitarian nightmare.

New York should not cooperate with federal immigration authorities to allow rounding up of otherwise law-abiding people who lack legal status — even as some officials should reconsider their blanket refusal to aid Washington when those subject to deportation are accused of serious crimes, as well as to legitimate tightening of the southern border and the asylum system.

But not every issue is so existentially important to the future of New York as immigration. The city’s political class begins far left of center, and in recent history has proven to be more motivated by fervent resistance to any and all things Trump than by anything else.

The 2025 mayoral field, sensing a Mayor Eric Adams with low approval and under federal indictment, is likely to respond to the Trump win with ever more passionate rallying cries to resist. How about stopping, listening and maybe even learning from the changing electorate they are supposed to represent instead?

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