When Mayor Cherelle L. Parker campaigned for Democrats in Philadelphia last fall, she never seemed too eager to say President-elect Donald Trump’s name.
When asked about the former president, Parker often referred to Trump as “that guy,” offering brief criticisms and quickly moving on to say something nice about his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that on Monday, when Trump is scheduled to be sworn in for a second time, Parker won’t be caught up in a scathing attack on the fresh commander-in-chief. The mayor, a Democrat who is entering her second year overseeing Pennsylvania’s largest city, has instead promised to work with the incoming Trump administration on their shared priorities – if they exist.
“At this point in our city’s history, we need everyone to help us move forward,” Parker said during a news conference this month when asked if she would meet with the mayor. “And that’s what leaders do. Check your ego, your pride and your emotions at the door and you will come together to try to find solutions to the problems.
Parker’s openness to working with the president, who frequently denigrated “Democratic-run cities” during the campaign, comes as other members of her party have also signaled they may be less openly hostile to Trump than they were early in his first term. This may be partly because Trump and Republicans won decisively, and Democrats want to show they are responding to an electorate ready for change.
U.S. Senator John Fetterman recently made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, to meet with the president-elect. Gov. Josh Shapiro, who portrayed Trump as an existential threat to democracy before the election, now says he is ready to work with him. Other prominent Democratic governors have highlighted areas of potential cooperation.
Still, the lack of resistance is particularly notable from Parker, who governs a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-1 and who almost certainly doesn’t need Trump supporters in Philadelphia if she decides to run for re-election.
People close to Parker say her calculations may be more about management than personal politics. Philadelphia receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds each year from a variety of sources and may need more. In his second year in office, Parker is prioritizing a housing plan to increase the city’s supply of affordable housing — a significant undertaking that may require funding and grants from outside the city.
He also intends to expand the city’s support services for people with substance use disorders as part of a broader effort to end free drug markets.
Earlier this month, the administration opened a massive new convalescent home in Northeast Philadelphia. The City Council has already approved $100 million in funding for the project, but Parker said the administration already needs $50 million to $75 million more and a future Trump administration could be a potential partner.
“I don’t care about Democrat, Republican. I don’t care who you are,” she said during the opening of the facility. “This is about solving a problem in Philadelphia.”
» READ MORE: As Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker prepares to work with the Trump administration, she says the election is ‘in the rearview mirror.’
Her attitude is a 180 degree difference from her predecessor, former Mayor Jim Kenney, who led the city during Trump’s first administration and seemed happy to take the fight to the White House, calling Trump everything from a fraud to an “idiot.”
After Trump won his first election in 2015, so did Kenney expressed his desire to meet him. But the collegiality did not last long, largely because of Trump’s maximalist immigration policies, which Kenney – who made supporting immigrants a cornerstone of his political identity – despised.
Parker is already under pressure to adopt a more Kenney-style approach to immigration. Activists want her to pledge that Philadelphia will remain a sanctuary city despite threats from Trump and incoming administration officials to strip the city of federal funding from cities that protect undocumented immigrants.
“It’s not 2016”
Richardson Dilworth, a professor and chair of the Department of Politics at Drexel University, said Trump has created an atmosphere of uncertainty by repeatedly making vague threats of retaliation against cities and states that do not align with his administration’s vision on immigration. At times he has said he would use the military to carry out deportations or strip federal funds from cities that did not provide aid.
Dilworth said Trump and his administration are coming in with first-term experiences that make any threat “more solemn this time.”
“This is not 2016,” he said. “I don’t think it will have much electoral benefit [Parker] — or even an advantage at all — to take the kind of antagonistic position that the Kenney administration and everyone has taken. This is definitely not the vibe right now.”
» READ MORE: Fetterman will meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the culmination of months of more open work with the Republican Party
Parker was never like Kenney, who was seen as a socially progressive City Council member before he became mayor. Parker is a more moderate Democrat who ran for mayor advocating a tough-on-crime approach. Her first election was to the House of Representatives, where she occasionally worked with Republicans to advance policy – the kind of bipartisanship rarely needed in City Hall, where Democrats rule.
When she ran in the 2023 Democratic primary for mayor, she often spoke during the campaign about her experiences working with Republicans in Harrisburg and described them as evidence that she was not driven by ideology.
Since taking office, he has continued to oppose political tribalism. Despite campaigning for Democrats ahead of the November election, Parker is doing everything she can to strike a bipartisan tone. Parker stated that she would work with new Republican Senator Dave McCormick.
She publicly congratulated several times new state Sen. Joe Picozzi, a Republican from Northeast Philadelphia, who stunned Democrats in November by unseating one of Parker’s allies: then-Sen. Jimmy Dillon. Picozzi, Philadelphia’s first Republican state senator in more than 20 years, joined Parker and other Democrats on stage last month when she delivered the major “State of the City” speech.
During the speech, she welcomed Picozzi and stated that his presence was a symbol of her commitment to “intergovernmental cooperation”.
“The people of Philadelphia elected me to do some work,” she said. “And I must tell you, as your mayor, that no election result will change my point of view. Period.”
