MAY 21, 2020
No thanks, I’m good.
President Donald Trump speaks as he tours Ford’s Rawsonville Components Plant that has been converted to making personal protection and medical equipment, Thursday, May 21, 2020, in Ypsilanti, Mich. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Trump refused to wear a face mask while touring a ventilator plant in Michigan on Thursday, sending a defiant message one day after threatening to hold up federal funding for the state over baseless voter fraud accusations.
Trump’s maskless visage stood out during the tour of the Ford plant in Ypsilanti as virtually every person around him had their faces covered.
But Trump claimed it wasn’t necessary for him to wear a mask because he had tested negative for COVID-19 earlier in the day, ignoring the fact that both Ford and state officials had pleaded with him to cover his face regardless.
In an about-face, the president said he had worn a mask in the “back area” of the factory but that he had taken it off before walking onto the floor.
“I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Trump said. “It’s not necessary here. Everyone has been tested. I’ve been tested … It is not necessary.”
President Trump appears without a mask as he speaks at the Ford plant.
President Trump appears without a mask as he speaks at the Ford plant. (Alex Brandon/)
Ford informed the White House prior to the tour that all visitors had to wear face masks, since Trump’s own Centers for Disease Control say it prevents asymptomatic people from spreading coronavirus unwittingly.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel even threatened legal action against Ford if it allowed Trump into the factory without a mask and said she would issue a formal notice that the president would no longer be allowed “to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state” if he bucked the directive.
Adding insult to injury, Trump also reiterated his threat to freeze federal funding for Michigan if the state makes it easier and safer to vote amid the coronavirus pandemic by letting all residents cast ballots by mail in November’s presidential election.
“I might have to do that,” Trump said.
For the second day in a row, Trump refused to explain what federal aid, in particular, he’d withhold from Michigan.
Instead, he kept pushing his dubious claim that vote-by-mail plans enables widespread fraud.
“Who are these people that are voting? They get it, it comes by mail, maybe. Maybe it doesn’t come,” the president said.
There’s no evidence to suggest that vote-by-mail significantly increases the likelihood of fraud. Trump himself even voted by mail in Florida’s Republican primary in March.
Trump notably has not railed against any Republican-run states that have enacted universal vote-by-mail plans similar to the one Michigan is implementing.
Courtesy/Source: NY Daily News
