Greene has relatively little name recognition among the five major candidates in the Democratic primary. | AP Photo Greene faceoff with Trump at golf club part of $2.9M ad campaign in Florida governor’s race

MIAMI — A billionaire member of Mar-a-Lago is running for Florida governor as the only candidate in the race to stand up to President Donald Trump “in his own dining room” — and Jeff Greene says he has a video to prove it.

Greene’s campaign told POLITICO he’s featuring the snippet of video as B-roll in one of two TV commercials he’s airing for a week as part of his mammoth $2.9 million introductory ad campaign.


The video was taken in December 2017 by his wife, Greene told POLITICO, after Trump started yelling at him near the buffet at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. He said Trump was enraged because Greene both supported Hillary Clinton and had told the Palm Beach Daily News during the campaign that the Republican was guilty of sexual assault.

“I walked by and he screamed, he pointed at me: ‘Jeff Greene!’ Really loud. And, of course, everybody looks up,” Greene said, recalling that Trump was with a posse of about a dozen people, including one of his sons, adviser Kellyanne Conway and his designated White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus.

“And he starts ranting and raving: ‘You went against me in the media during the campaign!’ Over and over again. ‘You support Hillary Clinton!’” Greene said. “The whole room is staring at this, where the guy is unhinged, turning red, flailing his arms. And so my wife starts videoing it. And he was going on and on.”

Because his wife was at a distance and started shooting video at the end of the confrontation, Greene says it doesn’t capture him responding to the president-elect about how he had no regrets backing Clinton or opposing Trump.

POLITICO could not independently verify the story, which Greene is now telling publicly for the first time while pushing back on the notion that he and Trump are friends.

The campaign late Monday did not release the video available for viewing. It first released a script of the 30-second ad — called “Stand up to Trump” — and then the commercial featuring the clip on Tuesday morning. Jibing with Greene’s story, the snippet of video shows Trump pointing at Greene in the crowded dining hall. The ad uses the confrontation as a metaphor and says Greene will stand up to the president on guns, “affordable healthcare, and women's choice.”

“Jeff is the only candidate in America who is willing to stand up to Trump in his own dining room,” the ad says. “Sure, that took some backbone. But that's exactly what it's gonna take to stand up to him as governor of Florida. The timid need not apply.”

The second ad Greene plans to air as part of his TV and digital buy is a 60-second bio spot that tells the story of his blue-collar roots in Massachusetts, his dad’s early death at 51 and his mother’s struggles working as a widowed single mom. Greene went on to become a real estate and investment tycoon who made a fortune betting against subprime loans.

Greene has relatively little name recognition among the five major candidates in the Democratic primary, but front-runner Philip Levine helped show how to quickly make up for that deficit with an ad campaign of more than $11 million over the past seven months.

Greene at this pace is set to shatter Levine’s record in a few weeks, could quickly become a top contender in a state with 10 major media markets and is likely to make this the most-expensive Democratic primary for governor in Florida history.

In 2010, Greene ran unsuccessfully for the Senate and spent about $24 million in a primary against then-Rep. Kendrick Meek, whose campaign and supporters used Greene’s wealth against him. They also defined the one-time Republican as a fake Democrat who profited from the bad economy, while the working class suffered.

Since then, Greene went back into private life; founded a private elementary school in Palm Beach County, where he says he gives many students financial aid; and has begun making himself far more accessible to Florida reporters. He quietly filed to run June 1, long after the others entered the race.

Greene, though, isn’t shy about flexing his financial muscle.

"We're going to give all this money away anyway, what we really want to do is make a big impact and a difference in the world and make people's lives better," he told The Associated Press. "Whether we spend $100 million, $50 million, $200 million — whatever it is, we will spend whatever it takes to make sure that our message is heard at least equally to what the Republican message has been."

One of Greene’s Democratic opponents, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, has signaled that he’ll make the wealth of Greene and all of the other primary opponents an issue.

“I’m the only non-millionaire in this race,” Gillum says on the stump.

Gillum has yet to advertise statewide on television and is running in the bottom of the pack. Former Rep. Gwen Graham recently began her ad campaign in the Tampa and Orlando markets and has spent about $2.2 million so far. Winter Park businessman Chris King has spent more than $2 million.

The primary is Aug. 28. The winner will likely face Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam or Rep. Ron DeSantis, who are both praising Trump as they run against each other in the GOP primary.

Greene said he expects to be Florida’s next governor, but he will probably lose something in the process: his Mar-a-Lago membership. Asked whether he’s been booted from Trump's exclusive resort club, Greene said, “I’m sure that it’ll happen.”