Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, right. | AP Photo/Craig Ruttle Shared anxiety over Trump helps cool Cuomo-de Blasio feud

ALBANY — Here's one unintended consequence of Donald Trump's unexpected election as president: It is cooling the feud between New York’s top Democrats, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Don’t expect the men to lock arms in solidarity or start dovetailing their initiatives, their advisers and friends say, or be anything more than superficially polite. There’s still a deep suspicion and animus among both politicians and their aides.


But the emergence of a common, powerful threat has prompted both men to devote their energy away from the sniping that defined much of the state’s political discussion last year and on to other matters.

“The confounding factor is Trump. Does Trump drive them into each other’s arms, if not for a marriage than maybe for a one-night stand or a weekend?” said Doug Muzzio, a professor of political science at Baruch College. “Given that Trump is going to be the arch-enemy, I think they have to work together, whatever that means. Maybe there will be a strategic thaw.”

De Blasio will travel onto Cuomo’s turf on Monday to testify at a state budget hearing in Albany — an annual ritual that will pit the mayor against legislators. This year, however, de Blasio's visit involves far less duress.

Last year Cuomo put pressure on the city by proposing to offload $800 million of costs, principally for Medicaid and the CUNY system, onto de Blasio’s books. The mayor blasted Cuomo and rallied allies in the state Assembly, prompting the governor to retreat in the final budget.

This year’s spending plan does include some items of concern for the city. The governor’s latest proposal to extend the 421-a property tax break to spur affordable housing construction would cost the city $820 million more than it had planned over 10 years. There are provisions aimed again at Medicaid savings, but also investments in transit infrastructure and life sciences to help the city’s economy.

The mayor and governor have also so far avoided a clash on tax policy: Cuomo reversed course and decided to renew the state’s expiring millionaires' tax, saying the $3.7 billion in annual revenue it generates is critical to maintaining state services. De Blasio, who butted heads with Cuomo in 2014 over a proposal to raise the city’s income taxes, applauded him.

“The governor’s budget is generally very supportive of the city,” said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business group. “Part of it may be the extension of the high-earner tax. While we’d like to see the tax phased out, to the extent it comes back to New York City, that’s important.”

De Blasio has so far kept relatively quiet about Cuomo’s budget proposal, saving a substantive analysis for Monday morning. City Hall aides said Sunday evening that the mayor would use his testimony to propose a 2.5% tax on the sale of houses and condos for more than $2 million.

Like all Democratic politicians, each man is focusing on the best way to be a foil to Trump in a way that suits his own needs. But somewhat unpredictably, they’ve taken divergent approaches that haven’t led to conflict.

De Blasio, facing re-election this year, has styled himself as a bulwark against Trump for the last several months. He has solicited campaign funds on the promise that he will stand up to federal policies that negatively affect liberal voters who propelled him into office in 2013, and urged New Yorkers to resist Trump during a rally outside a Trump hotel last week.

Rather than big-footing the mayor, Cuomo has decided against explicitly attacking the president. The governor is instead aiming for a middle-class constituency that he said has been under-served by Democratic politicians.

De Blasio met with Trump just after his election and then told reporters on the sidewalk outside Trump Tower that he emphasized “how much fear” his election caused. After his own trip to Fifth Avenue, Cuomo said he and Trump had a “not adversarial” chat that included talk about health care and, to Cuomo’s delight, federal funding for infrastructure projects.

This weekend, when both men — and Democratic politicians everywhere — condemned Trump's executive order restricting travel from seven majority-Muslim nations, they did it separately. De Blasio joined thousands of people at a rally in Battery Park; Cuomo held a press conference at his midtown office.

Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant who has advised Cuomo, explained that each man was focused on a different goal. De Blasio is rallying his base as he seeks a second term while Cuomo is laying the foundation for a 2020 presidential run that may or may never be.

“The mayor is fighting for his life,” Sheinkopf said. “While that’s occurring, the governor is going to be doing a legislative session and trying to run the state government. It’s a question of timing. De Blasio needs the battle to survive, the governor doesn’t.”

Everyone interviewed for this article said there still would be spats between the men as opportunities arise. One Cuomo partisan put it this way: the governor is no longer actively looking for fights to pick with the mayor, but won’t resist an easy chance to throw an elbow. Look no further than the ridiculous, pre-Christmas kerfuffle over whether to euthanize a deer found in a Harlem park.

It’s still unclear whether Cuomo will get involved in de Blasio's re-election campaign, more likely in whispers than shouts. The governor did not publicly endorse a candidate in the crowded 2013 Democratic primary field and has said nothing as this year’s race begins to grind. But Cuomo has not been subtle about boosting potential rivals of the mayor, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

A Cuomo spokesman declined to comment.

De Blasio, who in 2015 broke the feud into the open by publicly accusing Cuomo of governing by “vendetta,” grinned last week when asked about his recent relationship with the governor and said he was not currently inclined to punch.

“There's such a yearning on the part of my dear friends here to sort of put this dynamic into a simple definition,” the mayor said. “I believe we work from a position of strength. I think the very simple construct we've set out for dealing with Albany is the same we'll say for Washington. If you do something good for the people of New York City, we'll work with that, we'll appreciate that. if you do something that hurts the people of New York City, we'll fight it.”

-- Additional reporting by Laura Nahmias.