WASHINGTON — A couple of days after Election Day in 2016, Donald J. Trump obtained a name on his cellphone from Michael R. Bloomberg, an outdated a
WASHINGTON — A couple of days after Election Day in 2016, Donald J. Trump obtained a name on his cellphone from Michael R. Bloomberg, an outdated acquaintance he had clashed with throughout the marketing campaign.
Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York Metropolis, had known as to supply his congratulations, however the president-elect reduce him off.
“You have been very imply to me!” Mr. Trump stated, based on folks accustomed to the decision. Mr. Trump was referring to Mr. Bloomberg’s slashing speech that yr on the Democratic Nationwide Conference, throughout which he known as the Republican a “con” and known as on voters to elect a “sane, competent particular person.”
Mr. Trump settled down virtually instantly, then turned the dialog towards his newest predicament: shortly hiring folks to fill out his authorities.
Mr. Bloomberg, based on the folks briefed on the decision, advised him that when he was first elected mayor in 2001, he, too, had by no means served in authorities. What Mr. Trump ought to do, Mr. Bloomberg suggested, was to “rent lots of people smarter than you.”
“Mike,” Mr. Trump replied tersely, “there isn’t any one smarter than me.” A startled Mr. Bloomberg paused earlier than turning the dialog to a much less fraught topic: golf.
The 10-minute cellphone dialog was the final time the 2 males spoke.
Mr. Bloomberg is now pouring lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} into an effort to turn out to be the Democratic presidential nominee, an unprecedented self-financed marketing campaign that the occasion’s top-polling candidates have principally ignored. However a lot of Mr. Bloomberg’s spending doesn’t promote his personal marketing campaign in any respect, and as an alternative assaults Mr. Trump on points like well being care and integrity within the navy — a blitz of destructive tv advertisements that has managed to anger the president.
Although aides have implored him to not take the bait, Mr. Trump has been unable to withstand. He has branded Mr. Bloomberg, who’s 5 ft 7 inches tall, as “Mini Mike” on Twitter, and sparred with him over well being care. He has additionally advised aides that Mr. Bloomberg is a “dangerous man.”
When it was disclosed that Mr. Bloomberg had bought a Super Bowl ad for about $10 million, for example, the president’s re-election marketing campaign, inside hours, stated that it had additionally purchased a $10 million advert to be aired throughout the sport.
As members of Manhattan’s rich elite for many years, Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Trump, whereas by no means pals, typically crossed paths at a charity golf sport or a fund-raiser. Over time they’ve boosted one another when it served to spice up themselves.
Mr. Trump usually praised Mr. Bloomberg’s management of New York Metropolis. And Mr. Bloomberg gave him an implicit stamp of approval when he twice appeared on Mr. Trump’s actuality TV present, “The Apprentice,” and when his administration awarded Mr. Trump a metropolis contract to refurbish a golf course.
In 2008, Mr. Bloomberg joined Mr. Trump, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Joe Torre, then the Yankees supervisor, for an occasion at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Westchester County, N.Y., the place they have been photographed grinning collectively in matching tightly fitted caps.
Each males now play down any moments of bonhomie from their previous.
Like Mr. Trump earlier than him, Mr. Bloomberg had flirted with operating for president for therefore lengthy, it had turn out to be one thing of a political punch line till he really jumped into the race in November.
As Mr. Bloomberg weighed a presidential run final winter, some Trump advisers thought he would make a helpful goal for Mr. Trump, all the time in want of a foil, due to his historical past of making an attempt to ban sugary drinks in New York Metropolis and his advocacy in opposition to weapons. However on an intuitive stage, Mr. Trump is keenly conscious of how issues play on tv and the efficiency of operating as a change agent. Annoyed, he has lately advised associates that Mr. Bloomberg is “making an attempt to purchase the election,” and famous that even he himself took donations in his 2016 marketing campaign.
The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Mr. Bloomberg’s transactionalism — and curiosity in profitable no matter contest he’s a part of — additionally has echoes of Mr. Trump’s method.
Each males constructed up their fortunes within the 1980s in New York — one a self-made billionaire who spent his cash lavishly, the opposite born into privilege and infrequently described as frugal — slapping their names on their corporations and their merchandise. Mr. Trump, a garrulous entertainer, was a distinction with Mr. Bloomberg, a dry-humored businessman whose Massachusetts accent has by no means completely light.
By the point Mr. Bloomberg took workplace in 2002, Mr. Trump was not a builder in New York Metropolis a lot as an entertainer, a brander and a licenser, and so had much less enterprise to conduct with Mr. Bloomberg than with two of the earlier mayors, Mr. Giuliani and Ed Koch. Mr. Trump had a famously cantankerous relationship with Mr. Koch, however wanted help from him and from Mr. Giuliani for his improvement initiatives.
Mr. Trump, after backing Democrats when Mr. Bloomberg was operating for mayor as a Republican in 2001, turned…