Trump was not accompanied by any staff as he sat in his office chatting with Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel Trades Council, and Jennifer Cunningham, a Democratic strategist and former member of Hillary Clinton’s New York leadership council. (Also in the meeting were Vincent Pitta, a New York labor lawyer, and Jim Callahan, general president of the International Union of Operating Engineers.)
The meeting represented a symbolic victory of sorts for Trump, similar to his wining and dining of Mitt Romney, as well as his meeting with former Vice President Al Gore — a sign, perhaps, that some labor groups and Democrats who backed Clinton were slowly coming on board, or, at least, willing to sit down and talk…
But some Democratic labor leaders in New York City were gripped with fear that the meeting only helped to normalize the president-elect at a critical juncture — just as the labor movement is hoping to rise up as a force of resistance and a reinvigorated voice for vulnerable Americans, in opposition to the incoming administration.
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