Trump news – live: President says he would have done ‘nothing’ differently to stop pandemic as death toll nears 94,000 and will soon stop taking hydroxychloroquine
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Donald Trump travelled to Michigan to tour a Ford factory making ventilators for the coronavirus pandemic. He said he wore a mask in the back room, but didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing him wear it, even though it looked very nice on him. Even better than without a mask.
Michigan's attorney general Dana Nessel says Trump is not welcome back to the state after refusing to wear the mask, and she threatened Ford with legal action for allowing him to do so.
Trump may hold back federal funding from the state, which has suffered catastrophic flooding after two dams broke. He has tied unspecified funding to mail-in voting, which he says leads to mass voter fraud.
Trump has said he would have done "nothing" differently to stop the spread of the coronavirus - even as a new Columbia University model indicates that going into lockdown two weeks earlier would have saved 36,000 American lives. The country's death toll is currently approaching 94,000.
Internationally and interplanetary, Trump confirmed that the US has pulled out of the Open Skies weapons treaty with Russia while saying he might attend the NASA SpaceX launch of two Americans to the International Space Station next week.
He also revealed that he will stop taking the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine "in two days", which he has been heavily criticised for by his usual cheerleaders over at Fox News.
The president's day ended with a Twitter rant lamenting that Fox News was littered with garbage because they were doing nothing to help him get re-elected in November, while his former fixer Michael Cohen was released from prison early with the ominous comment that "there is so much I want to say".
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Michigan governor pleads for federal aid from Trump to deal with catastrophic '500-year flood'
As Gretchen Whitmer seeks support for a natural disaster following swiftly on the heels of the virus, the president is threatening to cut funding to her state over his extremely vague mail voting fraud allegations.
This is how serious it is, by the way.
John T Bennett has the latest.
The struggle to reopen all US states safely and sensibly
“You have 50 different governors doing 50 different things,” observes Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California. “There will be states that open too soon or states that are too conservative. It is hard to thread the needle.”
White House’s rift with CDC to blame for delays on church reopening guidance
Guidance for reopening houses of worship amid the coronavirus pandemic has been put on hold after a battle between the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the White House, which was resistant to putting limits on religious institutions, according to administration officials.
The CDC this week issued a detailed road map for reopening schools, child-care facilities, restaurants and mass transit. On Tuesday night, the agency issued additional guidance in the form of “health considerations” for summer camps, including overnight camps, and youth sports organisations and colleges.
But there are currently no plans to issue guidance for religious institutions, according to three administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy decisions.
Is this any time to be monkeying around? Yes... yes it is, says Harvard.
Hopes of a coronavirus vaccine were boosted by a Harvard study that found monkeys develop a "natural immunity" to the virus.
Vaccine prototypes in monkeys, meanwhile, provide "substantial degree of protection".
The two separate studies give hope that coronavirus could be preventable by a vaccine and that surviving an infection could prevent reinfection.
Chiara Giordano has the report.
BREAKING: Rare inflammatory syndrome now in children in 25 states
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state has identified nearly 160 children impacted by an inflammatory disease related to coronavirus infections.
The disease has been found in 25 states and 13 countries, nearly doubling the numbers reported last week.
Follow the story here at The Independent as it unfolds:
CDC quietly releases reopening guidance shelved by Trump White House
The White House quietly released initially-shelved CDC reopening guidance after removing restrictions that prevented churches passing around collection plates.
After being held up for weeks by a debate over restrictions for religious organisations, the advice was added to a 20-page appendix of a previously existing document on the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention website on Sunday.
While it did not include faith-related guidance, it outlined advice on how to reopen childcare, schools, day camps, mass transit systems, restaurants, bars and other businesses.
The CDC, meanwhile, subtly updated its website guidance on how coronavirus spreads to focus on person to person contact while saying the virus "does not spread easily" from touching surfaces or objects.
"This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads, but we are still learning more about the virus," the CDC website now says.
Doing it for the lolz -- Anti-Trump group tries to troll the trolls
The group of high-profile Republican strategists-in-exile who oppose Donald Trump released another advertisement this week to get under the president's skin, this time playing to his reported insecurities about his 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale.
"Meet Brad Parscale -- from dead broke, to the man Trump can't win without," the narrator begins the ad entitled "GOP Cribs," to music evocative of an MTV trailer for a new reality show.
"Brad is getting rich. How rich? Really rich!" the narrator continues, listing off recent purchases by Mr Parscale, including three Florida properties worth more than $4m, a private yacht, and a Ferrari.
How does that stack up against the Trump trolls' latest trolling? Let's check in with what they've been up to lately:
Griffin Connolly has more.
Trump tests positively for coronavirus. Which is to say negative. Which is perfectly positive.
Speaking to reporters on his way to Michigan today, Trump confirmed he had one more day of taking hydroxychloroquine after a two-week regimen.
And he's tested very positively. Not that positive, the other positive. The positive toward the negative.
I don't know. You untangle this pretzel:
"I think it's another day. And I'm still here. I'm still here and I tested very positively in another sense this morning. I tested positively toward negative. I tested perfectly this morning. Meaning I tested negative."
"But that's a way of saying it. Positively toward the negative."
Rocket Man: Trump to attend NASA SpaceX launch next week
The president said today he was considering attending SpaceX launch of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on 27 May.
"I'm thinking about going, that'll be next week, to the rocket launch. Hope you're all going to join me, I'd like to put you on the rocket and get rid of you for a while," Trump told reporters.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station will be the first astronauts launched into space from US soil since 1991.
They will be hitching a ride on Elon Musk's SpaceX Crew Dragon rocket.
No word if Trump and Musk will be sharing a picnic blanket, but the SpaceX CEO has been leaning in the president's direction lately.
Trump confirms US withdrawal from Open Skies Treaty with Russia
Trump today confirmed that the US had pulled out of the Open Skies Treaty with Russia that allowed the two countries to fly unarmed observation flights over each other.
Citing Russia's violation of the agreement, Trump said there's a very good chance of making a new deal.
"Russia didn't adhere to the treaty so until they adhere we'll pull out, but there's a very good chance we'll make a new agreement," Trump said.
"I think that what's going to happen is we're going to pull out, and they're going to come back and want to make a deal."
Russia has previously restricted flights over Kaliningrad and areas of its border with Georgia, leading military observers say Russia had an unfair advantage over the US.
"Our relationship has come a long way in the last few months. I think that the Open Sky will all work out. But right now when you have an agreement and the other side doesn't adhere to the agreement we're not going to adhere to it either," Trump said.
"But I think something positive will work out."
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