“The president is deemed to be in the essential workforce category and therefore he is welcome to New Jersey,” Murphy said during a Friday news conference. “There was no either private or public signal from us otherwise.”
The president was set to leave the White House for Trump National Golf Club on Friday afternoon. The White House did not immediately provide an explanation for the change in plans.
A senior official in the Murphy administration said the governor’s office did not speak with the White House about the quarantine order and had no idea what prompted the president’s cancellation. A weather forecast showed that thundershowers are expected to hit the area during the weekend.
New Jersey has recorded 14,872 coronavirus deaths and 170,196 positive tests as of June 25, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The state has suffered the second-most deaths and the third-most positive tests in the United States.
When Trump traveled to his Sterling, Va., golf club in May as the American coronavirus death tally approached six figures, Joe Biden’s campaign pounced on the outing with an attack ad.
“Nearly 100,000 Americans have died. The death roll is rising,” the ad read. “The President is playing golf.”
Trump was forced to cancel a trip to Bedminster in early June amid the protests against police brutality after the death of George Floyd in police custody.
