President Donald Trump visited an Arizona face mask factory, using the trip to demonstrate his determination to see the country reopen.
PHOENIX — Making himself Exhibit A, President Donald Trump visited an Arizona face mask factory Tuesday, using the trip to demonstrate his determination to see the country reopen even as the coronavirus remains a dire threat. At the same time, the White House said it hopes to wind down its virus task force in the coming month as Trump’s focus shifts.
“The people of our country should think of themselves as warriors. We have to open,” Trump declared as he left Washington on a trip that was more about the journey than the destination.
In Arizona, Trump acknowledged the human cost of returning to normalcy.
“I’m not saying anything is perfect, and yes, will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon,” he said.
Trump had said he would be willing to don a face mask if the factory was “a mask environment,” but in the end he wore only safety goggles during a tour of the facility. Nearly all Honeywell workers and members of the press as well as some White House staff and Secret Service agents wore masks, but not senior White House staff.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks when they can’t socially distance, such as in supermarkets and pharmacies, especially in places with high community transmission.
Trump was scheduled to spend less than 2 1⁄2 hours on the ground in Phoenix, touring the Honeywell factory and holding a roundtable on Native American issues. But aides said the trip would be worth the nearly eight hours of flight time as a symbolic show that the nation is taking steps back to normalcy. The trip was also expected to be a marker of Trump’s return to a regular travel schedule, as he hopes the nation, too, will begin to emerge from seven weeks of virus-imposed isolation.
After weeks cooped up in Washington, with little exposure to how the virus has been affecting Americans’ day-to-day lives, Trump got a firsthand view of one big effect. At the airport, Air Force One parked next to dozens of grounded commercial airliners with covered engines and tapedover probes and vents.
Trump sees economic revival as a political imperative, as his allies have noted an erosion in support for the president in recent weeks. Republicans believe Trump’s path to a second term depends on the public’s perception of how quickly the economy rebounds from shutdowns meant to slow the spread of the virus.
Trump has been repeatedly talking up his administration’s response to the virus, despite persistent criticism that he dragged his feet and failed to adequately increase production of personal protective equipment and testing supplies.
“We did everything right. Now it’s time to get back to work,” he said. He added that the country has “the best testing,” with more than 7 million now completed, even as some experts say that millions more people must be tested every week for the country to safely reopen.