Anxious to give the image of a country that is restarting, Donald Trump left Tuesday the White House to go to Arizona, where, faithful to his habit, he chose not to wear a mask, one of the tools of fight against coronavirus. "We have to open up our country," said the president from a Honeywell respiratory mask factory in Phoenix. "We cannot keep our economy closed for the next five years . " "I'm not saying that everything is perfect. Are some people going to be hit hard? Yes. But we have to open our country and we have to open it soon, ” he added.
If the United States has just crossed the milestone of 70,000 coronavirus-related deaths and could reach that of 100,000 before the beginning of June, the White House has been focusing its message for several days on the ongoing deconfinement, which already concerns the half of the 50 states, to varying degrees. Evidence of the executive's desire to mark the start of a new chapter, Vice President Mike Pence said that the crisis unit on the Covid-19, which he heads, should be dismantled in the coming weeks .
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Would Donald Trump be tempted to say "Mission accomplished"? "No, no, mission accomplished, it's when it's over," he replied. In fact anyway, it looks more and more like it. Kayleigh McEnany, spokesman for the White House, said the medical experts would remain closely involved in the decision-making process. "The president will continue his data-driven approach for a safe reopening," she said.
After suggesting that he would wear a mask during this visit, Donal Trump therefore presented himself among the workers, all wearing masks ... without wearing one himself. In early April, the Republican billionaire had stressed that he did not intend, personally, to comply with this recommendation of the health authorities. "Wearing a mask when receiving presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know ... I don't feel it for me" , he had advanced, while all the visits of leaders strangers had already been on hiatus for weeks. Vice President Mike Pence had already been widely criticized for not wearing a mask while visiting a clinic in Minnesota, in violation of the establishment's regulations. Sunday evening, he admitted that he had made a mistake.
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The presidential trip itself, with advisers, journalists, members of the Secret Service, is a challenge. Anyone at any time near the president has been tested for the Covid-19, the White House said. "The president takes the health and safety of all who travel very seriously to allow his travel and the smooth running of White House operations," said Judd Deere, spokesman for the US executive.
Asked about the many projections that do not predict an end to contagion during the summer, Donald Trump has once again defended his decisions since the start of the pandemic. "We just got it ," he said. The balance sheet of the United States hides great disparities, as in Europe. Large initial outbreaks, such as New York and New Jersey, are seeing contagion decline. In Texas, Illinois and even the Washington region, the number of new cases is increasing. In California and Florida, it stagnates. California, the first US state to have decreed containment to contain the coronavirus, will begin to relax certain measures at the end of this week, such as the reopening of certain businesses.
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During his last trip to Arizona, on February 19 for a campaign rally, Donald Trump had minimized the risks, referring to the upcoming arrival of spring as a release. "I think everything will be fine , " he said on a local TV station. "I think that when we arrive in April, with warmer weather, it will have a very negative impact on this type of virus. We will see, but I think everything will be fine . "
