Donald Trump's feud with former New York mayor Edward Koch reignites - despite the city chief being dead

New papers reveal scale of animosity between the pair

Donald Trump had previously described Edward Kock as a 'moron' (Getty Images / Aude Guerrucci / Pool)

Newly-discovered documents have reignited Donald Trump’s feud with a former mayor of New York even though he died three years ago.

The US President clashed repeatedly with Edward Koch between 1978 and 1989. The Democrat city leader died in December 2013, aged 88.

Mr Koch’s family recently discovered an archive of his previously unpublished documents, including some in which the former mayor lays into his nemesis.

“Donald Trump is one of the least likable people I have met during the 12 years that I served as mayor,” Mr. Koch wrote in one essay. “It is incomprehensible to me that for some people he has become a folk hero.”

In another, he endorsed a New York official’s assessment that he “wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized”.

The documents date from around 1990, according to The New York Times – shortly after Mr Koch failed in his bid to secure a fourth term as mayor.

The pair had repeatedly clashed over a range of issues, including Mr Trump’s request for a tax cut on his Trump Tower building in Manhattan and the businessman’s attempts to build a huge complex, called Television City, on the city’s West Side.

After they disagreed on the plans, Mr Trump called the mayor “a moron” and said: “Koch has achieved something quite miraculous. He’s presided over an administration that is both pervasively corrupt and totally incompetent.”

Mr Koch responded by calling Mr Trump: “Greedy, greedy, greedy”.

He added: “Trump obviously considered himself to be my friend at one time, and because of that, or because he gave or raised $70,000 for one of my mayoral campaigns, he expected something in return. He never got it. And he thought that was disloyal.”

Mr Koch’s sister, Pat Thaler, told The New York Times that her brother would have opposed Mr Trump’s Presidential policy agenda.

“Clearly, he thought him a self-serving egomaniac,” Ms Thaler said.

In the newly-discovered documents, Mr Koch recounts a number of run-ins with Mr Trump.

On one occasion, the businessman allegedly said he would donate $500,000 to the city if a new conference centre was named after him.

Mr Koch also recounted a story told to him by a London shop owner who mentioned to a friend that he had a meeting with Mr Trump.

“Ten minutes into the meeting the phone on Trump’s desk will ring”, his friend is said to have told him.

“He will answer it and say, ‘You offered them $40 million and they turned it down? Offer them $60 million.’ He will then hang up and resume his meeting with you.”

Mr Koch wrote: “That is exactly what happened.”