White House defends Ivanka Trump after she flouts travel guidelines to celebrate Passover

The White House has come out in defence of Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, who recently ignored lockdown recommendations and traveled New Jersey to celebrate Passover.

Ivanka, along with her husband Jared Kushner went to one of Trump's golf resorts in Bedminster to mark the Jewish festival, which began on April 8. 

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The White House said that that the trip did not involve any more outside contact than if the couple had stayed put. 

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"Ivanka -- with her immediate family -- celebrated Passover at a closed down facility consider

ed to be a family home. Her travel was no different than if had she been traveling to/from work and the location was less populated than the surrounding area near her home in D.C.," the statement said.

It further said that at Bedminster Ivanka was "practicing social distancing and working remotely". 

Both Washington DC and New Jersey are under a "stay-at-home" measure, asking people to avoid non-essential travel. 

Also, White House has also earlier advised of avoiding "discretionary travel," forcing Americans to organise Easter and Passover weekend get-togethers virtually. 

Ivanka has also earlier advised people to stay at home to contain the COVID-19 spread in a homemade video.

"Those lucky enough to be in a position to stay at home, please, please do so," she had said in the video. 

"Every one of us plays a role in slowing the spread, and social distancing saves lives," she said. 

She also shared a tweet by New Jersey's Governor Phil Murphy a day before the beginning of Passover on April 7, which asked residents to celebrate health workers by "by staying home for them".

The US witnessed its highest daily toll on Thursday with 4,491 new deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 32,917, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The COVID-19 has most affected the United States both in terms of deaths and the number of positive cases which are more than 667,800.