Reporter mistakes ‘Magna’ factory cheer for MAGA, deletes post

A POLITICO reporter posted a video on social media Sunday morning reporting that Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) took part in a MAGA cheer during an appearance with a Trump cabinet member, only to realize a few hours later that the cheer was for Magna, a manufacturing facility in New Jersey’s 7th district.

Adam Wren wrote that he received the video “from a tipster” and made no apparent effort to verify it until several hours later, when he deleted the post after a call with a Kean staffer.

Kean joined U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick for a tour of the Flemington-based Magna-Power Electronics, which makes programmable power supplies at a local factory for customers like NASA, Google, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Magna-Power employs over 100 people.

Wren wrote that Kean, “locked in a re-election battle in a swing district, did a ‘1-2-3 MAGA cheer’” with Lutnick.

A review of the 8-second video by the New Jersey Globe shows Kean, Lutnick, along with a crowd of Magna-Power employees, saying “1-2-3 Magna.”

“It was a mistake by me,” Wren told the New Jersey Globe on Monday.  He quickly got off the phone, promising to call back soon.  But Heather Riley, a strategic communications and reputation management consultant, then returned his call and said she was calling for POLITICO.

Wren simply deleted his X post and made no effort to explain why.  Riley later declined comment.

Two individuals shared the video that Wren used with the New Jersey Globe, pitching a story that Kean was involved in a MAGA cheer.

The Department of Commerce notified the media of the event on Wednesday.  The factory tour was followed by a press conference with Lutnick and Kean.

“We can confirm that the Secretary was yelling ‘Magna,’ which is short for Magna-Power, the New Jersey facility the Secretary was visiting with Rep. Tom Kean, Jr.,” a Commerce official told the New Jersey Globe.