I agree Christie should be considered as being in the mix. Yes, he’s pulled some real boners and at times seem to have stuck his fingers in our eyes. However, when he was on his game (our game) he was in my top five who didn’t take any schitt.
As to Trump having that street information with respect to the trade unions, around here we call that data “tribal knowledge”. And you cannot assign a $$ value to it...actually priceless or invaluable. Remember Rodney Dangerfield in Back To School where Rodney was sitting in class busting the uppity professor about the real world...knowing what skids you had to grease to get things done? That is also priceless. Reminds me of what the Trumps had to do. Been around a few union business agents in my day. “Interesting” types they were.
Conveniently for DJT he was dealing with the same people his dad had or their offspring who he had personally handed envelopes to as a kid himself. He knew them all and THEY knew him. No more negotiating the deals had been made when they were kids.
He used the same cement crew on ES building his dad had used for decades. Not only did DJT come out of “suburbs”’to the city, he brought the workers with him. They owe him! Lots!