TRENTON — Less than two weeks after being elected president in November, then President-elect Donald Trump decamped to the private golf course he owns in Bedminster to hold a series of closely watched transition meetings with advisers and possible Cabinet picks — including Gov. Chris Christie.
Now, an audio recording obtained and published by Politico shows Trump also invited members of the posh Trump National Golf Club in the Somerset Hills to “come along” as he spent the weekend piecing together his administration.
“We’re doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything,” Trump said during a dinner reception with about 100 longtime members of the club held that Friday, according to the audio. “You may wanna come around. It’ll be fun. We’re really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government.”
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Trump, a real estate mogul who became the first person elected president with no government or military experience, also told the members: “This is my real group.
“These are the people that came here in the beginning, when nobody knew what this monster was gonna turn out to be, right? ” he added.
“You are the special people,” Trump said.
Politico said White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said the story “tries to create a narrative that just isn’t true by taking snippets of conversations and events out of context.”
Sanders also disputed that Trump was inviting club members to join him in the meetings, according to the report. She said he was instead “giving a description of what is happening and explaining the nature of the disruptions at the club and reassuring the members.”
The recording also comes after Trump won an election in which he repeatedly professed a populist message — that he would be a president of the people and not the political elite.
It also gives provides a peak into how the former Atlantic City casino magnate speaks to friends when away from the press and also comes amid questions over how he conducts business away from the security and discretion of the White House.
Last weekend, Trump was having dinner among members of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida when he got word of a North Korean ballistic missile test. At his table, in the open air, the president began discussing how to react to the news, while club members snapped pictures. The White House later said Trump did not discuss classified material in public, but some national security experts have condemned the action.
Among the people Trump met with at Bedminster the day after the recording was made was former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney; Betsy Devos, the future U.S. education secretary; and Lew Eisenberg, the former head of the Port Authority. The day after that, he met with Christie; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; and Wilbur Ross, the future U.S. commerce secretary.
Listen to the full recording here.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
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