NORWOOD, Mass. — Donald Trump traded the storm and stress of his populist rallies for more rarefied airs on Friday night, and the crowd loved him all the same.

An invitation-only fundraiser hosted here by car dealer Ernie Boch Jr. — best known for appearing in quirky local television ads — featured champagne flutes and manicured grounds. But Boch is Trump’s kind of billionaire.


So there was also a stretch Subaru limousine in the driveway, aging rockers in the backyard and Boch’s personal drone hovering overhead. All the while, a man with a red clown nose sat in a chair reserved for reporters, holding a strip of paper that said “#clownsmatter.”

Trump didn’t use the evening event to test any new lines of attack against his competition, instead staying on familiar ground with jabs at the media, one-time front-runner Jeb Bush and Secretary of State John Kerry.

He took umbrage at a CNN reporter’s question about the protestors — the Hispanic picketers who frequently appear at this events were joined by a contingent from NARAL pro-choice — outside of Boch’s mansion, once described as “gaudy” in a lawsuit lodged by neighbors who are also car dealers.

“You people do not cover us accurately at all,” Trump of the network, which so far has enjoyed plenty of access to him as he feuds with Fox News and its journalist Megyn Kelly.

Asked to respond to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s remark that some of his comments about women have been “reprehensible,” Trump said, “He must’ve been talking about Jeb Bush,” and pivoted back to a favorite target: the former Florida governor’s statement earlier this month that he’s “not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.” (Bush later said he had misspoken.)

About 1,000 donors gathered out back, Boch’s spokeswoman estimated. Each paid $100 a person to get into the event, and while Boch called it a fundraiser, Trump said it was not. He said the money paid by attendees covered only event costs.

“Everybody’s offering me money and I don’t want it,” said Trump, who, POLITICO reported on Sunday, attended a fundraiser for a super PAC supporting his candidacy last month.

The enthusiasm of the New Enganders in dark suits and cocktail dresses chanting, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” illustrated what polls have already shown — the appeal of the magnate’s crowd-pleasing message and style transcend divisions of education level, region and ideology within the Republican Party.

“Call it silent majority. Call it whatever you want,” as Trump put it when talking to reporters.

The appeal even transcended aesthetic sensibility. “I am psyched that he is actually saying the things my friends talk about when no else is around,” said Johnny Kelly, 48, resplendent in a snakeskin-patterned blazer with a blue silk kerchief, who works for one of Boch’s entertainment businesses.

The more conservatively dressed of the donors felt just as strongly. “I don’t want to die in a socialist, progressive, Godless America, and Trump will save us,” said Joseph Fierro, 83, who wore a blue blazer, walked with a cane, and took great interest in the fashion choices being made around him.

(“Isn’t he?” asked Fierro as a Guy Fieri lookalike with spiked blond hair strode past. He wasn’t.)

The event featured a giant, red “Make America Great Again” hat cake and several donors wearing non-edible versions of the now-iconic caps.

Before a classic-rock cover band took the stage, Trump turned his attention to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The real estate heir wondered aloud, “How do you inherit a dictatorship?” as fellow heir Boch looked on.

Like Trump, Boch has continued a family business started by his father. And like Trump, Boch — who attended Berklee College of Music, plays guitar in a rock band and sports a goatee — does not subscribe to a buttoned-down image of wealth.

“I respect the man and look up to the man,” Boch said.

Showing some solid political instinct, Trump joined this New England crowd in bashing the NFL for punishing the Patriots and their quarterback, telling the league to “leave Tom Brady alone.”

Former Patriots offensive tackle Matt Light was in the crowd and said he had never had a reason to get involved in politics before Trump’s candidacy. But, he likes what Trump has to say. “I’m for common sense.”

And Light said couldn’t miss an event like this. “Between Ernie Boch and Donald Trump, you couldn’t ask for a better party.”