Lew's View: Mayor de Blasio and the Next President

Lew Leone is the vice president and general manager of WNYW-FOX 5. He is taking to the airwaves with his thoughts on current affairs. It's called "Lew's View." In this commentary, Mr. Leone addresses the prospect of Mayor Bill de Blasio's relationship to whoever is the next president.

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New York City sends more tax dollars to Washington, D.C., than any other city and we've always struggled to get our fair share in return from the federal government.

And now whether or not the next president is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump the struggle will continue because the current mayor has a terrible relationship with both of them.

This should be the election where New York City comes out ahead. After all, both candidates have strong ties to the Big Apple: Clinton as the former senator for our state and Trump as a local real estate mogul. They both know very well that New York City needs and deserves more support from the federal government for transportation, infrastructure and homeland security.

Here is what Trump has to say about de Blasio, according to the New York Post: "He's one of the most incompetent men. He's the single worst mayor in the history of New York City."

That doesn't require much of an explanation.

The mayor's relationship with Clinton should have been a good one. Remember he ran her New York senate campaign.

However, de Blasio made the politically suicidal decision of not immediately endorsing his former boss. He burned a bridge by concocting grandiose and ultimately futile plans to be a national progressive leader. By the time he did endorse Clinton, it was just a disingenuous act of jumping on the bandwagon since everyone knew his progressive values were much more in line with those of Bernie Sanders.

So what does this mean for New York City? Let me connect a few dots. This week the Wall Street Journal reported that the mayor's much more politically astute rival Gov. Andrew Cuomo was working to develop a candidate to run against de Blasio next year. You can bet that either President Clinton or President Trump will work with Cuomo to unseat de Blasio.

Clinton because loyalty is most important and Trump because anyone else would be better. We need our mayor to have a collaborative, positive relationship with the next president.

The question remains, will de Blasio be able to pull of the impossible and mend fences before powerful forces combine to oppose his second term?