Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
As virus surges, Trump shifts focus to border wall
After Tulsa fizzled out, president tests sizzle in Arizona
SAN LUIS, Arizona — President Donald Trump visited the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday and tried to credit his new wall with stopping both illegal immigration and the coronavirus. But his visit played out as top public health officials in Washington were testifying about the ongoing threat posed by COVID-19, singling out Arizona as one of the states now experiencing a surge in cases.
In the blazing summer heat, Trump briefly stopped to inspect a new section of the concrete and rebar structure where the president and other officials took a moment to write their signatures on the wall.
“It stopped COVID, it stopped everything,” Trump said.
Trump was looking to regain campaign momentum after his weekend rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was supposed to be a sign of the nation’s reopening and a show of political force but instead generated thousands of empty seats and swirling questions about the president’s campaign leadership and his case for another four years in office. The low turnout sharpened the focus on Trump’s visit to Arizona, which doubles as both a 2020 battleground state and a surging coronavirus hot spot.
By visiting the border, Trump sought to change the subject to an issue he believes will help electrify his base in November.
“Our border has never been more secure,” Trump declared as he met with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and federal Border Patrol officials.
The visit came one day after the Trump administration announced that it was extending a ban on green cards issued outside the United States until the end of the year and adding many temporary work visas to the freeze, including those used heavily by technology companies and multinational corporations.
“Right now we want jobs going to Americans,” Trump said of the move.
Later Tuesday, he addressed a group of young Republicans at a Phoenix megachurch.
Throughout the trip, the
COVID-19 pandemic shadowed Trump.
The Democratic mayor of Phoenix made clear she does not believe the church speech could be safely held in her city — and urged the president to wear a face mask.
Trump has refused to wear a mask in public, instead turning it into a red-vs.-blue cultural issue.
Polling suggests Republicans are far less likely to wear face coverings than Democrats despite health experts’ warnings that it dramatically reduces the risk of transmitting the virus.
Campaign officials stressed that rallies would remain a staple of the president’s reelection strategy but allowed that they may, in certain states, need to change slightly.
Discussions were under way about having them in more modest venues or outdoors, perhaps in airplane hangars and amphitheaters, or in smaller cities away from likely protesters.
Meanwhile, Trump mined another cultural flash point, lining up squarely Tuesday with those who argue that the pendulum has swung too far in favor of removing statues and other symbols of America’s flawed history, saying mistakes will be repeated if not learned from and understood.
After weeks spent demanding “law and order” in response to the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death by police in Minneapolis, Trump began to draw a line in the sand.
He spoke out after an attempt Monday night to bring down a Lafayette Park statue of Andrew Jackson, one of Trump’s favorite presidents, was foiled by police in the park across from the White House. Trump called it a “sneak attack” on the statue of Jackson, who owned slaves and was ruthless in his treatment of Native Americans.
He promised executive action to protect monuments after some statues of Confederates and other historical figures with checkered life stories were angrily brought down from parks and other places of public prominence.
Trump said he wants the maximum punishment available under federal law — up to a decade in prison — for those who destroy or tamper with statues on public property that commemorate anyone who served in the U.S. military. He said the executive order would “reinforce” existing law.
“We are looking at longterm jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators,” Trump said, referring to protesters who have vented their anger over racial injustice by toppling statues of figures tied to America’s racist history.
“We should learn from the history,” he told Fox News in a taped interview broadcast Tuesday. “And if you don’t understand your history, you will go back to it again.”