Why is Donald Trump suddenly coming back to New York City?
How averse has Donald Trump become to setting foot in New York City? While he was in office, you could count the number of times he visited the city on one hand with fingers to spare. He’s been avoiding his longtime residence at Trump Tower like the plague, and he even officially moved his residence to Florida last year. But now suddenly Trump is visiting New York City, according to the Guardian, and no one is saying why. I have some thoughts on this.
When Trump avoided New York City throughout his presidency, we all presumed it had something to do with the mounting legal issues he’s facing there. When he was kicked out of the White House and went straight to Florida, it felt like a continuation of that pattern. Although it’s not really how things work, Trump seemed afraid that if he set foot in the city, or even anywhere in New York State, he’d get arrested or served with something.
In reality, when the Manhattan District Attorney is ready to indict and arrest Trump, it won’t matter what state he’s in at the time; he’ll be arrested and brought to New York. And as we saw this past week, a process server was able to serve Trump with a suit at Mar-a-Lago. But Trump has clearly been loathe to even so much as visit New York for four-plus years now, and it suggests that he thinks visiting New York could get him arrested.
So why is he suddenly coming back? Two potential scenarios come to mind. One would be that Trump is coming back specifically to deal with his worsening legal issues. Perhaps he’s been forced into giving a deposition. Or maybe he has some wacky plan to try to meet with the District Attorney.
The other scenario would be that Trump is coming back for something that’s so important to him, he’s willing to risk the real or imagined possibility of being arrested while he’s in the city. His real estate properties in New York City aren’t exactly doing well, and banks keep cutting him off; maybe he’s coming back for an in-person meeting with a financier aimed at saving one of his properties. In any case, we’ll find out what Trump is up to eventually.
