Donny from D.C., you’re on the air.

President Trump — buffeted by rumbling trade tensions with China, delicate negotiations with North Korea and fallout from the Russia investigation — took a few minutes this week to reach for the media equivalent of Linus’s blanket: New York City talk radio.

“When you asked me to do the show, I said, I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna take a couple minutes, I’m gonna do that show — in between North Korea and Iran and all of the other things going on,’” Mr. Trump told the hosts of “Bernie & Sid in the Morning” on WABC-AM, a drive-time program that is not exactly a must-listen beyond certain toll roads in the New York metropolitan area.

“And I gotta tell you, that’s the kind of guy you are, sir,” replied Bernard McGuirk, a co-host and a longtime Trump friend. “That’s why we love you.” (The interview, which aired Friday morning, was taped on Thursday.)

The president, a Queens native, grew up immersed in the jabbering, elbows-out culture of talk radio, province of swaggerers like the sports host Mike Francesa. Mr. Trump, who regularly appeared on Howard Stern’s program before his election, absorbed the practice of political leaders addressing constituents over the air: New York mayors have long held court by radio, including a memorable exchange in which Rudolph W. Giuliani dressed down the owner of a ferret.