President Donald Trump met briefly with the two major candidates for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey this weekend, with Bill Spadea getting a private audience on Saturday afternoon, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed from sources who spotted the two.
Spadea’s meeting with Trump took place in the Men’s Grill Room at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster less than a day after another candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, spent a few minutes with Trump and posted two photos after dinner late Friday evening.
A spokesperson for the Spadea campaign declined to comment.
Trump’s separate meetings with Ciattarelli and Spadea increase speculation that the president, wildly popular among New Jersey Republicans, might take sides in the June 10 Republican primary.
A poll conducted by Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and White House advisor, put the president’s favorables at 90% among Republicans in New Jersey, with nearly two-thirds of them (65%) saying they’d be more likely to support a gubernatorial candidate who had Trump’s endorsement. Conway is on the board of Kitchen Table Conservatives, a super PAC supporting Ciattarelli.
Ciattarelli spoke at the New Jersey Republican Statewide Leadership Summit in Atlantic City on Friday afternoon at Caesars, briefly stopped by an event for Vivek Ramaswamy at the Hard Rock, and then flew by helicopter secured by his campaign from the roof of the Hard Rock to Bedminster. Spadea did not attend the GOP conference.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
March 21, 2025 -
February 28, 2025 -
January 10, 2021