Why Wildwood’s mayor invited Donald Trump to use the beach for Saturday’s rally

On a bitterly cold January day in 2020, former President Donald Trump packed the Wildwood Convention Center with supporters at one of his biggest rallies of the last presidential campaign.

Four years later, Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. learned Trump wanted a reprise but the old venue was unavailable. He offered another idea:

“I said, well, we’ve got a beach,” Troiano, said.

» READ MORE: Here’s what to expect at Donald Trump's rally on Saturday

And thus was planned what is poised to be a big, boisterous, seaside Trump-fest at the Jersey Shore on Saturday in a town that draws visitors from across the Garden State and its swing state neighbor, Pennsylvania, six months before a high-stakes rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Trump, who is campaigning while appearing at his hush-money trial in Manhattan three days a week, has, by necessity, been focusing on big one-off rallies rather than frequent campaign stops. Wildwood, with its festival atmosphere and politically incorrect T-shirts, matches his brand of campaign showmanship. The town hosts country music festivals, muscle car shows, and Jeep parades on the beach. The Republican enclave in New Jersey is also a Trump-friendly spot in a blue state.

“Take the politics out of it and people would bend over backward for this number of people to come to their town,” said Troiano, who is a Republican and a Trump supporter. “We become national spotlight. They see the size of the beaches, they see the amusement parks we have to offer, our restaurants and hotels take a good hit.”

Trump will speak at a rally about 5 p.m. with the beach venue opening at noon. The space can hold more than 30,000 people. The campaign is paying for the event and made an upfront reimbursement payment of $54,000 to cover law enforcement support from Wildwood and nearby departments, Troiano said.

There’s some backstory there. The last time Trump came to Wildwood, then-mayor Pete Byron, a Democrat, blasted the campaign for its failure to reimburse the town for some costs.

Troiano, Byron, and sitting City Commissioner Steve Mikulski are all facing indictments that allege they defrauded the state’s health-care system by claiming to be full-time employees and collecting health insurance. So Trump, who has been indicted in four jurisdictions, will speak in a town in which two of its three current elected leaders are also under indictment.

Cape May County is a heavily Republican county in an otherwise largely blue state. In 2019 U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, whose district includes the beach resort town, switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and became a major Trump supporter. He’s now the head of Trump’s reelection campaign committee in New Jersey.

Wildwood is a town accustomed to holding big events and large crowds. A typical peak Shore day might see a quarter million people, Troiano said. The island, technically three separate municipalities, has long attracted working and middle-class families from the Philadelphia area for its two miles of arcades, pizza shops, ice cream stands, and boardwalk T-shirt shops.

Local Republicans are planning events around the rally, organizing watch parties and after parties, and making up digital fliers that countdown to “TrumpWildwood2.0.”

Some in the area are less enthused. Elizabeth Skrabonja, a Wildwood Crest resident for 37 years, sent a letter to the commissioners and local businesses blasting the decision to hold the event in Wildwood.

“Hosting Donald Trump under the guise of ‘he’s good for business’ speaks volumes of the character of those supporting this event,” she wrote.

Skrabonja, 62, who grew up in North Jersey, said an uptick in pizza sales and ride passes shouldn’t overshadow Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. “We do not have to wait for a court of law to determine for us that this man is not worthy of a stage in our town.”

For Trump, Wildwood is a quick trip from New York and has close proximity to the New York and Philadelphia media markets. The former president spent his one allotted weekday out of the courtroom earlier this month hosting rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan, two key swing states that like Pennsylvania flipped from red to blue in 2020.

“I’ve got to do two of these things today. You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time with the Biden trial,” Trump told supporters in Michigan, falsely implying that the president was involved in his hush-money case that was brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

When Trump came to Wildwood in 2020, his defense lawyers had just wrapped up their arguments in his first impeachment trial for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, which supporters called a witch hunt.

This time, polls show that Trump is narrowly leading in most swing states despite facing multiple criminal indictments.

While the majority of voters have expressed frustration with both candidates, Trump’s core supporters have remained loyal — and loud, treating his rallies like festivals, arriving hours beforehand, and listening to familiar playlists that range from Phantom of the Opera to Kid Rock.

The last time Trump came to Wildwood, Byron, a Democrat, was the newly elected mayor. Byron said he was banned by Van Drew from attending the Trump rally, despite supporting it as an economic driver for the town then.

Byron’s election seemed to represent a shift away from Trumpism and Troiano, who had been mayor for 19 years. But Byron resigned in September 2023 after he was sentenced following his guilty plea for to tax fraud in federal court.

Troiano became mayor again by a vote of the Wildwood Board of Commissioners in January.

Like Trump, Troiano had made headlines for his brash, unfiltered commentary. He was born and raised in the town and represents the third of five generations of his family to live in Wildwood.

Troiano has also faced legal troubles. He was indicted in August 2023, along with Byron and Mikulski, for their allegedly fraudulent participation in the State Health Benefits Program. The men are accused of passing a resolution to enroll in the health-care system and then faking time sheets to qualify for full-time employment, as was required to enroll in the program.

Their next court appearance is slated for May 17.

Troiano said the reception to the rally has mostly been positive, though he’s heard from some residents concerned about the crowds on Mother’s Day weekend.

“People are calling up, ‘is it gonna be safe? Are my children gonna be safe in town with these MAGA thugs?” he said.

Trump’s rallies have been largely peaceful this campaign season, but the image lingers of the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that followed a rally where he urged his supporters to march to the building as Congress was certifying his 2020 defeat.

“I’m sitting there going, ‘You’ve really got yourself twisted.’ Most of the MAGA people are conservatives. They’re not the rioters,” Troiano said. “Maybe you think this is Portland or Seattle. No one’s burning anything down here. This is Wildwood. We know how to do this.”