The potential CARES Act deal has been thrown in jeopardy, with President Donald Trump demanding that $2,000 stimulus checks be inserted into the package – up from the currently agreed upon $600.

Many of the nation’s Democratic leaders, including those in Congress and now Gov. Phil Murphy, agree that stimulus checks should be higher.

“If the president thinks we should be going to $2,000, count me in. I’ll go with him and say that we need more,” Murphy said at an unrelated event Tuesday morning in Toms River.

Trump tweeted a video on Tuesday evening which, while not explicitly threatening a veto, described the most recent package of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act as a “disgrace” and describing the $600 checks as “ridiculously low.”

He derided a litany of spending items that he suggested were unnecessary to include in the federal relief package, like foreign aid, but those items were in fact part of an accompanying $1.4 trillion federal appropriations bill.

The CARES Act package passed both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives by a veto-proof majority and could overturn his decision should the president decide to take that route.

Democratic leadership in both houses – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer from New York – supported the $2,000 checks and said they were ready to fast-track such a measure.

And they lamented that Republicans blocked efforts to replicate the $1,2000 stimulus checks from the spring, when Washington passed the landmark Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

“I would ask the president, respectfully, to sign this and then come back for something very quickly, thereafter with a bigger amount,” Murphy added.

The ball would now be in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s court to agree to such a level of federal relief.

Some of the federal unemployment programs expire this week if Trump does not act on the measure.