That Ed Cox meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Daily Point

Governor Trump? What if?

Would life have been simpler for Donald Trump in Albany instead of Washington? What if he’d been New York State governor first, instead of president of the United States?

In the game of historical what-ifs, Trump’s short-lived consideration of running for governor in 2014 is barely remembered now. On Tuesday, the nation’s attention was instead galvanized by the sight of the former president being charged in Florida federal court for illegally keeping top-secret government records at his Mar-a-Lago home. Defeated in his reelection bid in 2020, Trump is currently the leading candidate to oppose President Joe Biden in next year’s presidential race.

But back in the winter of 2014, Trump was still a political newbie, a real estate mogul-TV star who had yet to run for public office. As rumors arose of Trump’s interest in Albany, then-state GOP chairman Ed Cox of Westhampton Beach flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and let him know he wouldn’t have a clear path to the nomination, something Trump wanted.

At the time of Cox’s trip, Trump was hosting a golf tournament in Miami — the WGC-Cadillac Championship at the Trump National Doral course — and the two had dinner. Trump later told the press they had “talked a lot about different things,” according to press accounts.

Cox publicly praised Trump, but privately opposed him running unopposed for the gubernatorial nomination, especially with other Republicans expressing interest in the job.

Eventually, the GOP chose Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino to run against incumbent Democrat Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who roundly defeated Astorino that November.

Trump was furious about Cox’s rebuff. The state GOP chair thought a primary between Trump and Astorino would be good for the party and drum up public support for their ticket in the fall. But Trump sharply disagreed and said the state’s county GOP leaders wanted to give him the GOP nod unopposed. He never jumped into the 2014 race for governor.

“The last thing you need is a primary,” Trump told The New York Times. “They want me to do it,” Trump said. “Other than Ed Cox, who doesn’t know how to win. He’s never won anything so he doesn’t know how to win.”

Two years later, Trump won the presidency.

Ironically, Cox is the son-in-law of the late President Richard M. Nixon, who was a political hero to Trump. Starting in the 1980s, the once and future presidents exchanged admiring letters, which were later made public.

“I think that you are one of this country’s great men, and it was an honor to spend an evening with you,” Trump wrote in June 1982, eight years after the Watergate scandal ended the Nixon presidency. Over the next decade, their letters would talk about politics, sports, the media and even the possibility that Nixon and his wife Pat might move into Trump Tower in Manhattan someday.

“Dear Donald, I know nothing about the intricacies of your business enterprises but the massive media attack on you puts me in your corner!” wrote Nixon in 1990.

Though Cox didn’t share his father-in-law’s enthusiasm for Trump, he has defended Trump in his current legal troubles. Cox, who recently became state GOP chair again, reacted strongly in March to Trump’s earlier indictment by the Manhattan DA for paying hush money to a porn star. Cox called it a “miscarriage of justice” aimed at “smearing, tearing down and demeaning former President Trump.” Cox has also blasted the Biden administration for the federal charges against the current president's would-be opponent and is expected to be at Trump’s fundraiser Tuesday night in Bedminster.

— Thomas Maier thomas.maier@newsday.com

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The Trump indictment gallery

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