CELEBS/NEW YORK/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Both were enduring characters in New York, their names in headlines, their faces on television. Both began their lives outside Manhattan — one was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the other in Jamaica, Queens — and both worked their way toward its irresistibly sizzling spotlight. Both were flamboyant attention-getters who found fame on television, Donald J. Trump as a reality-show host, the Rev. Al Sharpton as a cable news commentator. From time to time, they crossed paths, drawing energy from each other even as foes, as Mr. Trump made claims that Mr. Sharpton challenged — about five black and Latino teenagers who were charged with raping a white jogger in Central Park in the 1980s, and about whether Barack Obama was born in the United States. But sometimes they were friends in the way that public figures in New York can be.”
–James Barron and Jeffery C. Mays, “How Trump and Sharpton Became the Ultimate New York Frenemies,” The New York Times online, July 29, 2019