Recent days this summer have found Donald J. Trump, the current leader among Republican presidential candidates, drawing crowds of voters in New Hampshire or Iowa, even Alabama or Michigan.
But on Sunday, he traveled to the Jersey Shore, and the palatial seaside home of Seryl and Charles Kushner, the in-laws of his daughter Ivanka, for a sunny meet-and-greet.
“Seryl and Charles Kushner invite you to their home to meet DONALD TRUMP,” read the invitation, with the candidate’s name in red letters beneath a pair of American flags.
The casual-attire gathering attracted guests in shorts and short sleeves, and the bottom of the invitation was adorned with Mr. Trump’s slogan: “Make America Great Again!”
The event did not appear to be a fund-raiser. Instead, it was something of a garden party, with children’s rides set up along the extended front lawn at the Kushners’ $6.7 million, block-long beachfront property on Ocean Avenue in Long Branch.
Mr. Kushner’s son, Jared, and Ivanka Trump, have been married since 2009. The younger Mr. Kushner has been making calls on behalf of his father-in-law to try to rally support, according to people briefed on that outreach.
The elder Mr. Kushner, an old friend of Mr. Trump’s and a fellow real estate magnate, gave $100,000 to a super PAC supporting him, POLITICO reported on Sunday.
Mr. Kushner was one of the Democratic Party’s biggest financial backers in New Jersey until he was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and witness tampering and sentenced to two years in prison (he served one).
The United States attorney in Newark who oversaw that prosecution was Chris Christie – now the state’s governor and a rival of Mr. Trump’s in the Republican presidential field.
Mr. Kushner’s political visibility has abated since then, but his son has gained prominence after buying The New York Observer newspaper.
And both Kushners have a network of associates who could be valuable to Mr. Trump by lending their public support.
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