Trump plays fast and loose with rules
Donald Trump was accused of violating official public health guidelines after he was pictured shaking hands with his opponent while playing golf without a face mask.
Trump was pictured enjoying his first round of golf since March 8 at his own Virginian course on Sunday. It came as the US death toll approached 100,000.
His behaviour appeared to flout recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control, the federal organisation that oversees the epidemic response.
‘‘There’s clear scientific evidence to show that a mask does prevent droplets from reaching others,’’ Deborah Birx, the White House virus task force coordinator, told Fox News yesterday.
‘‘Out of respect for each other, as Americans that care for each other, we need to be wearing masks in public when we cannot socially distance.’’ She added Trump did wear a mask when unable to maintain social distancing.
‘‘I’m not with him every day and every moment so I don’t know if he can maintain social distance.
‘‘I’ve asked everybody independently to really make sure you wear a mask if you can’t maintain the six feet. I’m assuming that in a majority of cases he’s able to maintain that six feet distance.’’
Tom Bossert, a former Homeland Security adviser to Trump, said his decision not to wear a mask in public was ill-judged.
‘‘Do as I say, not as I do isn’t very useful,’’ he told ABC’s This Week.
It was the second time in a matter of days that the president had appeared in public without a mask, having declined to do so while visiting a Ford factory in Michigan which had been manufacturing ventilators.
Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio, tried to defuse the controversy.
‘‘This is not about politics, this is not about whether you’re liberal or conservative, Left or Right, Republican, Democrat,’’ he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
‘‘We wear the mask, and it’s been very clear what the studies have shown: you wear the mask not to protect yourself so much as to protect others. And this is one time when we truly are all in this together.’’
The row over Trump’s reluctance to wear a mask came as the president sided with religious leaders against state governors who have refused to lift bans on religious services.
On Saturday, Trump threatened to override governors, although it was unclear how he planned to do so.
William Barr, the US attorney general, has said that governors should treat secular and religious institutions in the same way and public health agencies have advised against gatherings of more than 10 people.
But the president described churches and houses of worship as ‘‘essential’’, in what was widely seen as a gesture to the conservative Christian voters who have been among his most loyal supporters.
In California, a federal court on Friday upheld Governor Gavin Newsom’s temporary ban on in-person religious gatherings. Pastors in several states have defied governors by holding services. Last week, the Centres for Disease Control said that 38 people who attended an Arkansas service in March contracted the virus with three worshippers dying.