President Donald J. Trump sat in the White House Oval Office with Governor Phil Murphy on Thursday, where he bragged about his government’s response to COVID-19 and complimented Murphy for reopening parks but did not commit to more federal funding for New Jersey.

“The federal government has done a spectacular job to the point where we’re helping other countries,” said Trump, with Murphy in the room observing social distancing.

“In our hour of need, a big part of our ability to reopen is to wrap up the expanded testing, and you all are helping us in a big way,” Murphy told the president. “We’ll be able to at least double our testing abilities.”

Trump prodded Murphy for more praise, asking Murphy who provided ventilators to New Jersey.

“We got them,” said the governor. “I’m told we were the number one recipient of ventilators.”

But there was no hard commit from the president – at least in the press briefing – to Murphy’s ask for more funding for the Garden State.

Trump was noncommital on aid, according to Bloomberg.

“We’ve been crushed and we appreciate your consideration on the financial side,” Murphy said in the Oval Office. Trump responded that the state’s hospitals have been put under strain and he would work with Murphy on that issue. Murphy later said his state may need $20 to $30 billion in aid. “We don’t see this as a bailout. We see this as a partnership,” he said.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 7,000 New Jerseyans despite aggressive measures by Murphy’s government to shut down the state and impose social distancing orders.

New Jersey was on the right track to economic recovery, the governor insisted.

But, “As Mike Tyson said, ‘everyone’s got a plan until you get punched in the face,'” Murphy said.

“And we did,” Trump laughed.

“And we did,” said the governor, thanking Trump for an “extraordinary spirit of partnership.”

The president returned the compliment.

“You can’t have a better representative than this man, plus he’s an old Goldman Sachs man,” said the president, who also noted the governor’s guts in climbing out of a hospital bed after surgery to tackle the virus.

Still, Trump complimented Murphy’s leadership but “didn’t explicitly commit to providing aid,” Bloomberg reported.

Yesterday, Murphy announced his executive order to reopen state parks (and to give county governments the discretion to reopen their parks) on Saturday. Fighting the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the New Jersey governor had ordered state and county parks closed on April 7th.

“Your interventions to me did not matter one bit,” he told critics at the War Memorial in Trenton. Instead, he said he was considering some positive data surrounding the outbreak, including the declining hospitalization rate.

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt swatted the governor as the Democrat prepared for his D.C. meeting with the president.

“When you meet with President Trump today, make it substantive, not symbolic. Come home with a plan for saving the State’s failing economy.

“What does that plan look like? We need a plan that corrects the overspending that’s plagued Trenton for decades. Work with the President to devise a plan that will provide meaningful economic changes today, not postpone paying for them until tomorrow. Come back with a plan to trim the state’s budget, not increase it.”

Murphy did stagger out a tri-state plan for the coming weeks.

From CBS:

While Murphy, a Democrat, has extended his state’s stay-at-home order indefinitely, he unveiled a six-pronged plan on Monday to “restore economic health through public health,” which must be followed alongside its neighboring states. The road map calls for a sustained reduction in new COVID-19 cases, expanded testing and robust contact tracing before the state fully reopens.

To watch a live CBS stream of the meeting, please go here.