A Democratic Governor’s Blueprint For Surviving Trump

TRENTON, New Jersey — President Donald Trump has vexed Democrats for over a decade. But outgoing New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy — who has served alongside Trump longer than any other Democratic governor in the country — thinks he’s cracked the code.

Murphy, who was elected less than a year into Trump’s first term in office, got “really close” with the president, a part-time New Jersey resident, during the Covid pandemic. But in Trump’s latest era — one underscored by aggressive immigration moves, cuts in federal funding for states and other policies that put him at odds with leaders of the opposing party — Murphy acknowledges it’s not as easy to connect with Trump as it was years ago.

“Be dogged about finding common ground, and at the same time, don't abandon your values,” Murphy said in an interview. “And I think that's the formula. It's really hard.”

Murphy spoke with POLITICO for an hour last week to reflect on his eight years in office, which concludes on Tuesday. He’s the first Democrat in decades to win two terms in the New Jersey governor’s office, and he steps down with his party on an even stronger footing than when he arrived in Trenton. That may have been hard to fathom when the former Goldman Sachs banker emerged seemingly out of nowhere a decade ago to succeed Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

But after years as a finance chair of the Democratic National Committee and U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Barack Obama, Murphy leveraged his wealth and connections to clear a crowded primary field to become New Jersey’s 56th governor. He’ll turn over duties to former Rep. Mikie Sherrill, plus the largest Democratic majority in the Legislature since Watergate.

Over the course of the conversation, Murphy toggled between national and local fights — from the investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which he called “breathtaking,” to his policy achievements at home, including the legalization of marijuana and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

But, like virtually everything else in American life, Trump dominated. And after eight years of governing with Trump in the foreground or the background, Murphy has a vantage point on the president unlike any other governor in the country.

During the pandemic, Murphy also had a working relationship with former White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom he praised for his efforts to provide ventilators and personal protective equipment. He said that “people forget” that “early on,” the administration was “pretty good on this.”

Murphy said he “expanded” his relationship with the president into “adjacent lanes,” like over the Portal North Bridge, an upgrade project important to the Northeast rail corridor that the Trump administration approved federal funding for later in 2020.

“When he ran the first time, he had a great line, he said, ‘I'm the only president, if I get elected, I'll be the only president in history who understands what rebar is,’” Murphy said, referring to his discussions of the bridge with Trump. “So I would try to couch it in a lane that I thought would connect with him. So less flattery than, ‘Wait a minute, I know this is his lived experience,’ or knowing New Jersey well.”

There’s less of that this time around. Beyond having what he called a “cordial conversation” with the president after he was elected again, Murphy hasn’t spoken with Trump lately — “it’s not that I wouldn’t speak to him, but it’s just harder,” he said — but talked to chief of staff Susie Wiles a couple of weeks ago.

The difference between the two Trump administrations, Murphy continued, is that “they know what they’re doing” and “there are no, that I can find, powerful voices on the other side of some of the actions.”

“I'm not a big Mike Pompeo fan, but Pompeo is brilliant, number one in his class at West Point — you know, a serious person,” he said. “Or Gary Cohn, who I know well, used to work with at Goldman Sachs, was the national economic adviser, Jared himself, who I have enormous regard for. Those folks are not on the scene, and I feel like that's the biggest — there's no ballast.”

Even with a good relationship, New Jersey hasn't been immune over the years to federal issues trickling down into the states. And there’s been plenty of disagreement between the governor and Trump, including on offshore wind, which the president has sought to kill: “We’ve fought like heck against the Trump team on offshore wind,” Murphy said. “I don't think it makes any sense.”

New Jersey has also been bullish when it comes to legal action against the administration, with outgoing Attorney General Matt Platkin suing more than 40 times since Trump came back into office.

And Murphy himself hasn’t been completely untouched. Last year, Trump border czar Tom Homan said that Murphy could be prosecuted over a comment he made suggesting he was harboring an immigrant at his home, and former acting U.S. attorney Alina Habba said she was investigating him over immigration enforcement. Nothing came out of either of those threats, according to Murphy.

But the governor said that he found that Trump has not gone “out of his way” to impact the Garden State — and “for the most part” still isn’t.

That doesn’t mean he’s not worried.

“I wake up every day hoping that we don't get hit in an innocent drive-by shooting [and] the shrapnel comes our direction,” he said. “You're balancing. You can't abandon your values. You can't abandon communities or people who are being attacked for no good reason on the one hand. And on the other hand, you're trying not to start World War III, and that's hard.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Those fears have only been exacerbated in recent weeks and months. In Murphy’s view, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “will be awful for New Jersey.” The state, which is home to a prominent population of immigrants and a controversial immigrant detention center, is “not immune” to action from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said, adding that he’s worried a situation like the ICE agent who fatally shot a U.S. citizen in Minnesota could happen here.

Beyond New Jersey, Murphy expressed concern with the administration’s way it went about capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. When it comes to talk about the U.S. seizing Greenland, he said that discussing “a land grab from an ally and a NATO partner of the United States” is “so beyond the pale.” And the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Powell “further undermines an institution that we've spent a couple of centuries building up,” Murphy said.

In just a couple of days, Murphy will hand the keys over to Sherrill, who had a blowout win in November to secure a third Democratic term in a row leading the state, a feat that has not been accomplished for six decades. Throughout her campaign, Sherrill positioned herself as a bulwark to the Trump administration. In an interview last month, her campaign manager and soon-to-be chief of staff told POLITICO that they would be willing to work with the president if the “administration wants to get on the team” to support her efforts to make “life easier and more affordable for New Jerseyans.”

Trump endorsed Sherrill’s opponent Jack Ciattarelli — a change from previous New Jersey gubernatorial elections. He didn’t get involved in Ciattarelli’s 2021 race against Murphy, nor did he back Murphy’s opponent in 2017.