‘Something has to come out of it’

Metro

By Reuven Fenton and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Former President Donald Trump said the senseless line-of-duty death of NYPD cop Jonathan Diller must not be in vain — telling The Post in an exclusive interview that “something has to come of it.”

“In life, some things just capture a moment and this captured a moment,” Trump said from his private jet on the tarmac at Long Island MacArthur Airport on Thursday. “This particular great officer, top of his class — he captured a moment.

“The perfect family has been so tragically altered, forever altered,” the former commander-in-chief said.

“I was telling Stephanie, the wife, who’s incredible — a 1-year-old baby who doesn’t know that his life has been greatly affected by this. I said something has to come out of it, and the only thing that you could really think that could come out of it is we get stronger and tougher so this doesn’t keep happening.”

Trump said Diller’s family invited him to wake at Massapequa Funeral Home, where he joined mourning friends and relatives and a phalanx of uniformed officers from throughout the US to honor Diller.

The 31-year-old NYPD officer, a three-year veteran of New York’s Finest, was shot and killed during a traffic stop while on patrol in Far Rockaway on Monday evening.

Career criminal and ex-con Guy Rivera, 34, was arraigned on murder, attempted murder and weapons charges on Thursday, even as Diller was mourned miles away, not far from his Massapequa Park home.

“There’s no words to really explain it,” Trump told The Post. “This was a terrible thing. But a thug who was arrested 21 times and his stablemate sitting in the other seat was arrested many, many times. These are bad people.”

The ex-president also railed against New York City’s “How Many Stops Act,” a law passed by the City Council over Mayor Eric Adams’ attempts to thwart it.

The law requires cops to fill out reports for every encounter while on the job, burying them in paperwork.

He said career criminals like Rivera and co-defendant Lindy Jones “are the ones we should be focused on, not doing lots of paperwork against our police.

“It’s not going to have any impact other than it’s going to give criminals more time to roam,” he said. “And they have to be able to protect our police.”

Trump was joined at the wake by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who spoke with the former president on Tuesday prior to Diller’s wake and reportedly had a hand in Trump’s presence.

The somber gathering came as President Joe Biden was joined by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in Midtown for a $25 million campaign fundraiser.

Trump, who is campaigning to regain his seat in the White House, has repeatedly blasted Biden and elected officials in Democrat-run urban centers, claiming they’re soft on crime.

Asked Thursday if he felt Biden should have been at Diller’s wake instead of at the fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall, Trump said the president had already missed his chance.

“It’s very late to reach out,” he said. “He should have reached out two days ago.

“I actually think it’s a very important moment for the country. I think he should be here.”