Donald J. Trump’s 70-year marriage to New York City, like all of his most volatile relationships, never ended quietly.
A rejection at the ballot box is not the final decision. A retreat to Florida — another septuagenarian Manhattan resident from the South, who is nominally living in retirement — won’t make him disappear in earnest.
A felony conviction? In any case, it looks like the overnight differences can be reconciled.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump will bring his campaign to Madison Square Garden, his final stop on the campaign trail, a twist of racism, bravado and frustration that has defined much of his New York life. It is the most daring destination of the final election campaign, which has highlighted the country’s history. It has been amplified since he left.
The appearance was an astonishing ploy even by his standards, a show of force in the venue’s Trumpian superlatives, “the most famous arena in the world.”
But most of all, it’s a reminder, a provocation, a warning that New York will never be completely free of him until death do us part.
And he will never end his relationship with New York.
“For him, this is a conquest,” said George Arzt, a city politics veteran who first met Trump in the 1970s.
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