To be clear. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy spoke out strongly and openly about his concern for a second Trump presidency in London on Thursday — both at a Financial Times conference being live-streamed across the globe and a private meeting with startups potentially considering taking space in the Garden State.
“We had a pretty seismic day on Tuesday,” he told both groups —in the opening moments of his remarks.
“The polls suggested that we shouldn’t be shocked that Trump won, but I am shocked at the magnitude of the victory and how close it was, even in very blue places like New Jersey, where Harris won, but with a much smaller margin than Biden had won in 2020.”
Murphy called it a ‘day of reckoning’ for the Democratic Party in the U.S. during his fireside chat with a Financial Times editor.
Later in the morning, in a private meeting with a handful of leaders of health care startups at Wilson Sonsini, a global firm that assists health care technology pioneers grow, Murphy detailed how the potential behavior of Trump — someone who has threatened mass deportations, among other things — could help make a still strongly blue state such as New Jersey be more attractive to those in the room.
“I still think you need to be in the United States, for both the market and what you ultimately are selling, but also for the talent, and that’s where we’re particularly compelling,” he told the group.
“I continue to think that our rationale for sitting around for an hour makes sense. It’s a good use of your time.
“I’d argue that sub-national relations will matter even more, if, at the federal level in the U.S., we’re going to go off on a bender for a few years. Having relations at the state level, I think, will be even more important. So, I’d argue that not only is this still a good use of time, but probably a better use of time than it would have had things gone the other way.”
His candor impressed the room.
Daniel Glazer, the founding partner of Wilson Sonsini’s London office, said the governor’s willingness to openly discuss the election went a long way.
“There’s a lot of questions that companies have outside the U.S. about what about the United States — and he was extremely engaging about answering their questions,” he said. “As one of the attendees said to me, ‘I didn’t really have many questions because the governor proactively addressed almost everything that I wanted to hear about.’”
Murphy’s spoke not only of New Jersey’s highly educated workforce, but the values the state stands for, including diversity and the acceptance of it.
Dr. Massood Ahmed, the head of a digital health startup, Vilvio, said Murphy’s willingness to address what Murphy called the elephant in the room, was refreshing. Ahmed himself spoke openly about it during the event — and then to ROI-NJ afterward.
“That showed me and the others here that this is someone who is going to address issues head on,” he said.
Ahmed said he also was impressed that Murphy discussed social issues, such as women’s health and diversity.
“Values are very important when it comes to picking where you want to go,” he said.
Just what will happen under a second Trump presidency was the question of the day, Murphy’s first of a five-day economic mission to the United Kingdom that is being sponsored by Choose New Jersey.
Murphy said he hopes the rhetoric Trump used while campaigning will not be the reality of his administration. He said there’s no way to be sure until he takes office – but said who he picks to be in his cabinet will be telling.
Murphy said Trump’s first administration was marked by a number of senior officials who offered guardrails. He said he’s not so sure that will be the case this time, considering some of the names of key officials already being floated.
That being said, Murphy said he is hopeful his experience with Trump — their respective administrations overlapped for three years during Trump’s first presidency — will help New Jersey. As will what Murphy called a personal relationship that he and first lady Tammy Murphy have with the now president-elect.
“This gets me no votes in my party, but we have a very good personal relationship with Trump,” he told the group. “I’m probably the only Democrat that he deals with.”
That was evident between 2017-20, he told the private group.
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“We had three years of overlap with him in our first term, so we’ve already we know what that playbook looks like: You have to balance what you’re going to fight to defend with where can you find common ground — and you can’t sell yourself out over here to get that common ground, because you could never live with yourself,” he said.
“So, it’s a very delicate sort of dual reality that you’ve got a balance, and we were able to do that effectively for the first three years.”
He then offered a sobering hope.
“This is a modest expectation, but if he’s going to blow the place up, I hope New Jersey gets the least blown up,” he told the group.
