NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump fled the Manhattan playground where he built his brand for the sunny climes of Florida in 2019. It turns out his hometown wasn’t done with him.
New York and its legal system this year have eaten away at Mr. Trump’s finances and, potentially, his freedom as he runs a third time for the White House.
Civil judgments in the defamation case from ex-magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll and a sprawling fraud case against the Trump Organization have resulted in penalties that exceed half a billion dollars, and 12 Manhattan jurors on Thursday made him the first former president convicted of a crime.
“I cherish New York, and the people of New York, and always will, but unfortunately, despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state,” Mr. Trump tweeted in November 2019 as he decamped for Florida.
In some ways, those parting words have become prophesy. Midtown construction workers and minorities in the Bronx are giving Mr. Trump a hero’s welcome even as Democratic officials throw the book at him in the courtroom.
Mr. Trump grew up in Queens and built his empire in Manhattan, starring as a tabloid darling in the 1980s and a reality TV star in the 2000s before his political rise.
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His long paper trail in New York, plus the eagerness of Democratic officials to turn that trail into lawsuits and an indictment, turned his old stomping ground into the epicenter of his legal woes as he takes on President Biden.
Other cases haven’t gotten far:
• Special counsel Jack Smith’s case alleging Mr. Trump conspired against voters after the 2020 election is mired in Washington as the Supreme Court mulls whether Mr. Trump enjoys presidential immunity against criminal charges.
• A second Smith case, in Florida, is stuck in neutral as a Trump-appointed judge slowly and carefully analyzes security concerns and legal issues around allegations Mr. Trump unlawfully stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
• A case alleging Mr. Trump violated Georgia racketeering laws after his 2020 stumbled out of the gate because Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had a romantic relationship with the man she hired to help lead the probe, raising financial conflict concerns.
Ms. Caroll, meanwhile, has successfully sued Mr. Trump twice in federal court over claims he defamed her after she publicly accused him of sexual assault in a New York department store in the 1990s. Mr. Trump denies the incident occurred, but faces nearly $90 million in judgments.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James convinced a New York judge to find Mr. Trump and his business liable on claims he submitted fraudulent financial statements to gain favorable terms on loans and insurance. He faces over $450 million in fines and interest, a judgment that could wipe out his cash stores if it is upheld.
The cases have forced Mr. Trump to fly from Florida and sleep at Trump Tower, his old domicile on Fifth Avenue. He held a post-conviction press conference Friday in the gilded lobby.
He railed against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for making it a top priority to get Trump.
“We had a DA who is a failed DA. Crime is rampant in New York. Violent Crime. That’s what he’s really supposed to be looking at,” Mr. Trump said, noting a machete-wielding attacker at a Times Square McDonald’s. “Bragg is down watching [my] trial on what they call crimes?”
It’s unclear whether the Big Apple battering will hamstring Mr. Trump politically in the state. If anything, he seems to be on the upswing.
A new poll shows Mr. Trump trails Mr. Biden by only 7 points in New York even though the Democrat won the state by triple that margin in 2020. The Emerson College Polling/The Hill/PIX11 survey said the swing is due to independents who typically vote for Democrats but have swung toward Mr. Trump.
The former president wasn’t as lucky in the courtroom, where he faced a jury drawn from Manhattan stocked with lawyers, an investment banker and others from professional classes who don’t make up Mr. Trump’s base.
Mr. Trump is no longer stuck in New York and can spend time at his Florida estate or campaign against Mr. Biden at his leisure, though he’ll be back in New York on July 11. That’s his sentencing day.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.