The President isn’t making that tightrope any steadier. The night before we spoke, Trump phoned into Ciattarelli’s tele-rally with a blunt reminder of where he expects loyalties to lie. “He’s got a friend in the White House,” Trump said on the call. “Whereas she certainly doesn’t,” he added in reference to Sherrill. The remarks were part of Trump’s broader pitch that a Republican governor in New Jersey would make the state more favorable to his Administration.
Ciattarelli stiffens slightly at Trump’s characterization. “You know, I don’t use the word ‘friend,’” he tells me of their relationship the following day. “We don’t get a chance to play golf together. We don’t get a chance to dine. But I do believe we have a solid relationship.” He adds that they talk every couple of weeks.
For Ciattarelli, that alliance captures the strange gravity of politics in 2025. With Trump back in the White House, his hold on the Republican Party remains total, yet his brand appears adaptive. In places like New Jersey, where a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won since 1988, Trumpism has taken on a subtler, more local form: less about grievance, more about governance. Ciattarelli is its clearest test case.
