The Star-Ledger ran a front page photo of Mr. Christie & Co. on the vast and otherwise unpopulated swath of sand, with the headline “Gov. Soaks Up Sun on Beach He Closed,” including an online photo gallery showing packed beaches elsewhere, and park officers turning non-gubernatorial beachgoers away. Irate Garden Staters and Twitter users around the country mocked the bronzed and hapless Mr. Christie.

In a local television interview, the governor thumbed his nose at The Star-Ledger: “I’m sure they’re going to get a Pulitzer Prize for this one.”

Fueling the ire was the sense that Mr. Christie, his presidential ambitions thwarted and his approval rating hovering between 15 and 20 percent, simply doesn’t care about appearances anymore. Sunday’s events made it even harder to recall that Mr. Christie made his political name “down the shore” in 2012, working to help communities recover from Hurricane Sandy.

It surprised Andy Mills, the Star-Ledger photographer, that Mr. Christie fudged about his beach day, since he seemed to know he’d been busted. “I’ve successfully hunted fugitives out of the country. I’ve caught alleged criminals trying to sneak out back doors of their homes or into back doors of courthouses,” he wrote. “Most of the time, I get the shots and make a clean getaway.”

But this time, “Christie looks me dead in the eye. He has to know what’s happening. Why else would a plane make two passes over his private beach party when there’s no one else around?”