Trump seeks an ally, or at least an ear, in Manchin

WASHINGTON — The caller needed no introduction — except, perhaps, to Sen. Joe Manchin.

“He says, ‘Joe, this is Donald.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Donald who?’”the West Virginia Democrat remembered from the first time President Donald Trump called his cellphone. “I didn’t know the voice. Then I kind of got who it was, and I said, ‘Oh, Mr. President-elect.”

That late November conversation was the beginning of an unlikely bond between the coal-country politician and New York real estate mogul, a relationship that’s turned Manchin into one of the Democrats’ best — and nearly only — conduits into the new Republican administration.

In Manchin, Trump sees the potential for a partner in a Democratic Party that’s all but declared war on his agenda.

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