Democrats 2020: Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor who believes he can topple Donald Trump

There is little doubt that Bill de Blasio will stand out in any Democratic candidates debate.

For a start, the 58-year-old mayor of New York City is six feet five inches tall, guaranteeing he will tower over the rest of the field.

It is also safe to assume that none of the other candidates has ever been accused of killing a groundhog.

The unfortunate incident, which has already been used by Mr de Blasio's opponents, took place at Staten Island Zoo's Groundhog Day Ceremony in 2014.

Mr de Blasio dropped the animal, which died a few days later. The zoo insisted that New York's mayor was blameless, but as far as some conservatives are concerned, the blood of the beast is on his hands.

Politically Mr de Blasio can point to his experience running a massive city and he has not been afraid to take on some of its most difficult issues.

He, along with state governor Mario Cuomo, wants New York to follow London's example and introduce a congestion charge, with the cash being used to modernise the city's creaking transport system.

Henry Garrido, the leader of the City Council's largest union, praises Mr de Blasio for breaking through the logjam of negotiations left by his predecessor, Mike Bloomberg.

"Now 95 per cent of workers have a collective bargaining agreement. We have mutual respect and he has tackled the issue of thousands of workers who were on below $15 an hour."

Mr de Blasio also plugged a loophole guaranteeing long-term sick leave for thousands of workers who contracted serious diseases when they went into Ground Zero after September 11.

It will bolster his credibility with the progressive wing of the party, along with his stance on income inequality and his friendship with Sadiq Khan, London's mayor and frequent target of Donald Trump's Twitter outbursts.

Mr de Blasio's pitch is that as a New Yorker, he knows how to deal with Donald Trump – or "Con Don" as he calls him.

"I know how to take him on, I have been watching him for decades," he said.

However, the groundhog incident is a microcosm of the mishaps which have dogged Mr de Blasio since becoming the city's 109th mayor in January 2014.

Mr de Blasio had barely got his feet under the desk before he came under fire for the city's response to the heaviest snowfall in living memory.

Mr de Blasio also became embroiled in an angry dispute over the carriage horses in Central Park.

His attempts to ban the industry on animal welfare grounds pitted him against the Teamsters' Union – and Liam Neeson, a strong supporter of the trade.

There have been clashes with the city's police force, with officers angered by his pledge to stop the city's stop and search policy.

Relations deteriorated when he delivered a series of speeches accusing the police of institutional racism.

The nadir occurred when officers turned their back on Mr De Blasio as he delivered eulogies for two policemen who had been gunned down in Brooklyn.

Mr de Blasio's announcement that he was running for the White House drew a coruscating response from the New York City Police Benevolent Association's president, Pat Lynch.

"It is incomprehensible that a mayor who has shown no interest in running New York City now says he wants to mismanage the entire country."

The sniping is threatening to sink Mr de Blasio's campaign before it even gets started. A recent Quinnipiac poll was hardly encouraging, with 76 per cent of respondents saying he should not run.

Arguably he did himself few favours with the city's voters by making it clear that his favourite baseball team is the Boston Red Sox, rather than the New York Yankees or New York Mets.

Just to add insult to injury, Mr de Blasio's favourite pop song is "London Calling" by the Clash.

Mr de Blasio has plenty of critics in New York.

"He's the kind of guy who will self-righteously lecture you about the perils of climate change but then insist on taking a caravan of SUVs from the Upper East Side every morning to the Park Slope YMCA to ride an exercise bike," says Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and political strategist.

"He's the kind of guy who micromanages his staff and won't let them make decisions but also won't work more than 20-25 hours a week. He's exactly the wrong type of person to run New York."

Doug Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College in New York and a veteran observer of the city's politics, also has his doubts.

"I think de Blasio's problem is he thinks he is a legend," he told the Telegraph.

"He has an extensive view of himself and his own capabilities.

"He has been a moderately successful mayor of New York City, which has positives and negatives.

"It does give him executive experience for the presidency. But there are other candidates with greater progressive credentials, and he does have a charisma deficit.

"You have to ask what his lane is and how does he get to be the presidential nominee.

"There is no lane. But then that is what people said about Donald Trump."