
President Donald Trump on Friday taunted Bill de Blasio within minutes of the New York City mayor’s withdrawal from the 2020 White House race, tweeting sarcastically that the low-polling candidate’s announcement was a major news event.
“Oh no, really big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years!
” TrumpThe jibe from the president came just after de Blasio’s
“I feel like I've contributed all I can to this primary election, and it's clearly not my time,” he said, citing his inability to qualify for the party’s primary debates as the “central reason” behind his decision.
Despite the bloated nature of the 2020 Democratic field, Trump and his family have shown a special fondness in recent months for taking aim at de Blasio, the top public official in the president’s hometown.
Hours after de Blasio first declared his presidential candidacy in May, Trump weighed in on Twitter with an insult for his fellow New Yorker.
“The Dems are getting another beauty to join their group,” Trump
But de Blasio, who called the president a “bully” in his campaign announcement video, had seemingly relished the attention from his would-be general election opponent, previously bragging that he irritates Trump in a way that sets him apart from the rest of the Democratic field.
“I know something about Donald Trump that’s different from the other candidates because I watched him for decades,” de Blasio told CNN in May, adding: “I understand his game plan. I understand his tricks and his strategies, and I do get under his skin.”
The relationship between the two New Yorkers has not always been so acrimonious. As a private citizen, Trump predicted ahead of de Blasio’s election to City Hall in 2013 that “he’ll end up being a good mayor.”
But de Blasio’s stewardship of New York City has since become a subject of consistent ridicule from the president's allies and conservative media commentators.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine