But New York journalists are not ones to let a competitive hometown primary go to waste.

Already, The Daily News has asserted itself in the national campaign, scoring viral hits with eye-popping front pages lampooning Mr. Trump as a clown and the Antichrist. Jim Rich, The Daily News’s editor in chief, says the hometown familiarity is a boon.

“We’ve had that advantage throughout the whole campaign,” Mr. Rich said, adding that this perspective has helped “explain the behavior of not only him as an individual over these last six months, but the behavior of his campaign, which has been a little more difficult to figure out.” (Mr. Trump has taken notice of the tough coverage: He declined an invitation to speak with The Daily News’s editorial board, Mr. Rich said.)

The Post has been more subdued in its coverage of Mr. Trump, leading to rumors about the leanings of its influential Republican owner, Rupert Murdoch. The Post’s editor, Col Allan, was spotted wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap around the newsroom, prompting a gleeful item in The Daily News.

A spokesman for The Post declined to comment about the paper’s coverage, but confirmed that Mr. Allan had donned the Trump cap, albeit briefly. “It was brought to the Post office by someone else, and he put it on for minutes,” said the spokesman, Steven Rubenstein.

Contacted for this article, Mr. Trump reverted to a familiar refrain: attacking the media. “The tabloids never stop, but one thing I will say with great certainty, they are far more honorable than the political press,” Mr. Trump said through a spokeswoman.

Years before he would compete for the White House, Mr. Trump found a natural audience in his local papers, a precursor to his success in today’s Twitter era. At ease with titillation and provocation — and always armed with a good quote — Mr. Trump propelled himself to notoriety in the predigital days of the celebrity press, when arrivistes were dependent on gossip gatekeepers like Page Six to break through.

“He was the original Paris Hilton,” said Paula Froelich, a former Post gossip writer, “without the sex tape.”