Trump tees off as Covid toll near 1 lakh
Washington, May 24: President Donald Trump kicked off the start of the American summer season on Saturday with his first golf outing in two months, underlining his push for a return to normal life in the United States.
With lockdowns easing across the country and the US leader ramping up his travels, Trump also confirmed he would attend a space launch in Florida next week. As the US marked Memorial Day weekend — the country’s unofficial start of summer — Trump took a 35-minute drive from the White House to the Trump National club in Sterling, Virginia, in his first visit to a golf property since March 8.
US media captured footage of the president, an avid golfer before the Covid-19 lockdown, on the course on the warm sunny day, dressed in a white shirt and dark trousers. Neither Trump nor his three golf partners wore masks, though he rode alone in his golf cart, a CNN journalist reported.
White House Covid-19 advisor Deborah Birx on Friday said that sports such as golf could be played safely if social distancing was in place and players didn’t touch flags. But she also warned that the Washington area continued to have high positive test rates. Trump, keen to find a way out of the Covid-19 crisis and facing an uphill re-election battle, has ramped up pressure on state and local governments to ease lockdown measures. On Friday, he demanded state governors classify churches, synagogues and mosques as “essential services” on the same level as food and drug stores, and immediately allow them to hold services.