Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman will be at Game 3 of the NBA Finals Monday night to cheer on the Knicks with President Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Nassau County executive is expected to enjoy the game with the president from a Madison Square Garden suite, but first, the pair plan to sit down and have dinner to discuss a range of issues.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe might have a hamburger together,\u201d Blakeman told City & State on Saturday from his box seat at the Belmont Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Blakeman\u2019s campaign did not immediately explain how Blakeman was paying for his ticket, but said it was not a gift from MSG CEO James Dolan. Trump has said that Dolan invited him to the game. Even the cheapest tickets to the game have been\u00a0listed for more than $10,000.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he\u2019s also planning to attend the Monday night game,<\/a> and paying his own way \u2013 though questions about the specifics of his ticket purchase were not immediately answered by City Hall.<\/p>\n Blakeman often speaks with and meets with Trump \u2013 most recently at a May 22 rally in Rockland County<\/a> to stump for Rep. Mike Lawler. Blakeman said he expects Trump will be visiting the state more frequently to help congressional candidates like Lawler, and himself, campaign this election year. \u201cI think we\u2019ll see a lot of him,\u201d Blakeman said while enjoying races at the Belmont for the second day in a row.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 158th running of the Belmont was held in Saratoga Springs again this year, but will return to Nassau County next year with reopening of the new, $455 million redevelopment of Belmont Park. Blakeman said that project, championed by his Democratic opponent, Gov. Kathy Hochul, was a smart investment \u2013 one he\u2019d emulate statewide if he becomes governor to expand the horse racing industry. \u201cWe\u2019ve got big plans for Saratoga and big plans for the racing industry,\u201d Blakeman said. \u201cWe want to take on Kentucky and become the premier racing state in the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The industry has seen a decline in recent years with greater reporting<\/a> and attention<\/a> on the public subsidies and the number of horses dying each season. But Blakeman said he\u2019s an animal lover, and it\u2019s about a balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think there comes a point in time where you also have to use common sense, and you also have to understand that there are things that are traditional for years and years and years that benefit the whole community,\u201d he said, \u201cand horse racing is one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman will be at Game 3 of the NBA Finals Monday night to cheer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19220,7160,4567,1626,28059,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-258424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-2026-new-york-gubernatorial-election","tag-2026-new-york-state-elections","tag-basketball","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-horse-racing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}