WH defends Ivanka Trump's personal travel amid lockdown

The White House has defended President Donald Trump's daughter and senior advisor, Ivanka Trump's personal trip to New Jersey last week even as federal guidelines advise Americans to remain at home, it was reported.

Washington, April 17 The White House has defended President Donald Trump's daughter and senior advisor, Ivanka Trump's personal trip to New Jersey last week even as federal guidelines advise Americans to remain at home, it was reported.

Ivanka Trump and her family travelled from Washington D.C. to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey to celebrate Passover, a major Jewish holiday, reports the bbc.

"Her travel was not commercial," the White House said in a statement on Thursday.

"She chose to spend a holiday in private with her family."

Both the nation's capital and New Jersey are under stay-at-home orders.

Ivanka Trump, her husband and fellow administration adviser Jared Kushner, and their three children went to "a closed-down facility considered to be a family home", the statement to US media said.

The White House added that the "travel was no different than had she been travelling to/from work", and "the location was less populated than the surrounding area near her home" in Washington.

Shortly ahead of her trip, Ivanka Trump had tweeted: "Those lucky enough to be in a position to stay at home, please, please do so."

The day before Passover on April 7, she also shared a tweet by New Jersey's Governor Phil Murphy that asked residents to celebrate health workers by "by staying home for them".

According to current federal coronavirus guidelines, people should "avoid discretionary travel, shopping trips and social visits", the BBC reported.

Washington D.C. has been under a stay-at-home order since April 1, with residents told to leave home for "essential" travel only.

New Jersey has been a hotspot for the outbreak, with over 71,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,100 deaths - second to its neighbour, New York, which is the epicentre of the pandemic in the US.

There are currently 671,425 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, with 33,286 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

( With inputs from IANS )