The battle for President Trump’s endorsement has reached new heights in the New Jersey GOP primary for governor

Jack Ciattarelli and Bill Spadea are top competitors for the New Jersey gubernatorial Republican primary, but their campaigns at times could be mistaken for a competition over who is more loyal to President Donald Trump.

That contest reached a new level over the weekend, when both candidates met with Trump, but only one of them appeared to have Trump’s approval to promote their encounters. Ciattarelli publicly embraced his meeting with the president while Spadea was silent about his own.

Rumors were swirling Friday night at Caesars Atlantic City, where establishment GOP leaders and supporters gathered for after-parties during the New Jersey GOP Statewide Leadership Conference. Ciattarelli rushed out early to meet with Trump, attendees heard, a little giddy.

That speculation abruptly ended when Ciattarelli posted photos on X with the president at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, more than 100 miles north of the conference. For Ciattarelli’s supporters — many of which attended the Atlantic City conference — it was thrilling news.

In one photo, Trump and Ciattarelli shook hands. In another, Trump flashed a smile and offered a thumbs-up. But what really excited attendees were photos of Ciattarelli sitting at a table with Trump and Elon Musk, showing what appeared to be an actual conversation, not just a photo op. Some attendees, drinks in hand, speculated this must mean an endorsement was on the horizon — what else could it mean? Others said that whoever says they can predict Trump’s next move is lying.

Ciattarelli missed out on his own Atlantic City after-party and ― though he met with conservative operative Vivek Ramaswamy before leaving town — he missed the national figure’s keynote speech.

» READ MORE: Vivek Ramaswamy urges New Jersey GOP to ‘fight, fight, fight’ in Atlantic City speech, cites DOGE as an example of democracy

Some New Jersey political insiders speculate that an endorsement from Trump would effectively end the primary.

So what happened? Ciattarelli was invited by members of the club close to the president’s team, according to a source familiar with the interaction. He heard the president would be there for dinner, and made sure to be there. Trump called him over after dinner to talk.

Ciattarelli took a helicopter paid for by his campaign from Somerset, where he lives, to the Atlantic City summit, and then back up to Somerset Friday to get to Bedminster, the source said.

Then, news came out over the weekend that Spadea also paid a visit to the president in Bedminster the next day.

But there was a key difference. Ciattarelli freely shared news of his visit with Trump on X Friday night, and Spadea has not posted anything about his visit. This is peculiar to political insiders for someone who calls himself “unapologetically pro-Trump” in his campaign video, often tags the president in posts on X, and whose ongoing opponent in a battle to win Trump’s loyalty was showing off their meeting just the night before.

Spadea’s campaign did not refute reports that he met with Trump at the Bedminster club on Saturday but declined to comment further about the meeting.

Spokespersons for Trump did not comment on or answer questions about the visits beyond saying they do not speak to the president’s private conversations. They did not answer whether he plans to endorse in the primary.

Spadea and Ciattarelli’s rivalry over who is more aligned with Trump is the very reason so many Republicans decline to take a side when asked about the primary in fear of dipping their toes into the inner-party turmoil. The two men were more focused on criticizing each other’s records on Trump than answering moderators’ questions at the first debate of the race in early February, which also featured former State Sen. Ed Durr, who dropped out of the race Monday, and State Sen. Jon Bramnick, who has been openly critical of Trump.

» READ MORE: The first N.J. Republican gubernatorial debate set the stage for a nasty primary

Spadea, a former conservative radio host, has presented himself as an antiestablishment politician who isn’t beholden to the machine while trying to frame Ciattarelli, a former Assembly member who has already run for governor twice, as too much of a politician. Ciattarelli, on the other hand, has tried to frame Spadea as a liar. Both men have made negative comments about Trump over the years before they made his support a main tenant of this race.

Trump has publicly appeared with Spadea before, even speaking on his radio show. Trump said on Spadea’s show in May 2024, seemingly referring to Ciattarelli, that “he made some very big mistakes” in the 2021 gubernatorial race and suggested he could have won if he was more allied with Trump. (Ciattarelli was just about three points behind Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in the 2021 election.)

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat running in a competitive primary, criticized both men for “kissing up” to Trump.

Some wonder whether Spadea is trying to push too hard against the GOP establishment to his own detriment. Spadea declined to attend the state party’s Atlantic City summit over the weekend, which didn’t sit well with attendees who view that community as a critical support system.

But with Ciattarelli positioned as the establishment favorite, Spadea’s operation has focused its efforts elsewhere, like on voters who support his more conservative platform rather than people who attend a party-sponsored event where he could be the underdog.

Spadea called the summit an “insider mutual admiration event” when he announced earlier this month that he would not be present.

“We’ll continue to spend our resources on going right to the voters,” Spadea said in a post on X.

Spadea said the state party will change if he wins the primary, and then the event would be “worth it.”

Four other Republican candidates, including Ciattarelli, Durr, Bramnick, and former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, sat for 30-minute interviews with radio show hosts at the summit for what attendees described as a job interview of sorts. Part of Spadea’s decision to skip out on the event stemmed from drama between his campaign and the party surrounding who would interview him.

Kennith Gonzalez, the state party executive director, said Spadea’s campaign rejected all of the interviewers they offered him and didn’t provide an alternative media personality when asked.

“We wanted to have all the leading candidates in attendance,” Gonzalez said.

Tom Bonfonti, a spokesperson for Spadea, argued that the party “wanted to force us to choose from a handful of their poor options,” and that the party rejected their proposed moderator — a New Jersey state representative — over not having a “larger platform.” Bonfonti argued the state party “has become nothing more than an arm of the Ciattarelli for Governor campaign.”

» READ MORE: Ed Durr drops out of N.J. governor race, says he isn’t endorsing Bill Spadea like announcement suggested

There was confusion this week over whether Durr, the antiestablishment candidate known as “Ed the Trucker,” would be endorsing Spadea. A consultant for Durr’s campaign released statements attributed to Durr that appeared to endorse Spadea on Monday, which Durr refuted, insisting he was not endorsing Spadea and saying he was the only serious candidate who hasn’t criticized Trump. Durr attended Spadea’s birthday party Tuesday night and thanked attendees for supporting Spadea, though he fell short of clarifying an endorsement.

“The conservative movement is moving forward, the establishment is dead,” Durr declared at Spadea’s event Tuesday night.