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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Will he or won't he?
Trump is on his way to the Ford factory in Michigan and the world is waiting with bated breath on if he will or won't wear a face mask.
He had this to say as he jumped on a flight north: "Well I don't know we're going to look at it. A lot of people have asked me that question."
But what does the school yard have to say? Let's start with John Cleese and Barbra Streisand no less:
Senate confirms Trump's new intelligence chief along party-lines
The Senate has confirmed Texas Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe to be Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, which oversees various spying and national security operations.
Mr Ratcliffe was confirmed on a party-line 49-44 vote on Thursday and will replace Richard Grenell, the acting DNI who has headed the office since last summer.
Mr Ratcliffe will assume his role at a politically precarious time for the intelligence office, which has been declassifying materials related to the FBI's 2016 counterintelligence investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and handing them over to Republican-controlled Senate committees that are investigating the Obama administration and former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumed 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.
Griffin Connolly has the report:
"We report, Trump Decides"
Should that be the new slogan of Fox News?
The president seems to think so. Somewhere between Washington and Michigan Trump tweeted that Fox "WAS" great, but now is doing nothing to help him get re-elected in November.
How dare they.
Let's wait to see if #MakeFoxGreatAgain starts trending.
Trump's factory tours risk bringing coronavirus 'hot zone' to small towns
Trump could be about to bring his super spreader status to Michigan, health experts warn
Mr Trump has made three trips into battleground states to address concerns related to the pandemic, but he and his staff may be spreading the virus as they travel.
Factory workers who meet with the president during these visits are then required to take rapid coronavirus tests. That practice has become standard for anyone who comes in contact with Mr Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.
"The White House is a potential hot zone for COVID - aides and valets close to the president are diagnosing positive," Dr Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and global health policy expert told NBC News. "If I'm a factory owner, do I really want a large group of visitors from the West Wing visiting me now under these circumstances, just to snap a few pictures? No."
Graig Graziosi reports.
Michigan threatens to sue companies that let Donald Trump inside unmasked
Trump is about to tour the Ford factory any minute now. Only he knows if he'll wear the mask or not.
Michigan, meanwhile, has threatened legal action against any company that allows Donald Trump into their facilities without wearing a face mask.
The state's attorney general Dana Nessel said during an interview with CNN that if Trump doesn't wear a mask, he'll be asked "not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state."
"I think we're going to take action against any company or any facility that allows him inside those facilities and puts our workers at risk. We simply can't afford it here in our state," she said.
(Psssst, hey Ford... she's talking about you)
CDC to put out guidance for church reopenings within next day
Trump said the CDC will put out specific guidance for churches either today or tomorrow, as he considered them to be "essential".
"They're so important in terms of the psyche of our country. To me they use the word essential, I think churches are essential. So important. People want to be in their churches," he said in Michigan today.
"It's wonderful to sit at home and watch something on a laptop but it can never be the same as being in a church or being with your friends and they want to have it open and I think that's going to be happening very, very shortly so that will be put out maybe tomorrow maybe today."
Trump unmasked
Aaaaaaaaand in a surprise to no one, Trump is definitely not wearing a mask touring the Ford factory in this very moment. Michigan's attorney general must be drawing up legal documents to sue one of the state's largest companies.
Trump wears mask and it looked very nice. Actually much better than no mask. No you can't see it.
Trump did wear a mask at the Ford factory today and it looked great. And goggles too, for that matter. But no one will have the pleasure of seeing it, unfortunately.
"Well I did wear, I had one on before, I wore one in this back area. But I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it," Trump said.
"I had goggles and a mask. Not necessary here. Everybody's been tested and I've been tested. In-fact I was tested this morning so it's not necessary."
Trump said he was given a choice, and either choice sets an example for the people of America, and he put one on when it was necessary but now it's not.
"So I put it on and it was very nice, it looked very nice," Trump said.
"Actually honestly I think I look better in the mask. I really did. But I'm making a speech so I don't have it now."
Stay tuned to the mask blog for minute-by-minute updates on masks and mask-related news as soon as it happens.
Behold, the Michigan Man of the Year
Someone better direct Trump to this very live blog's debunking earlier today of his Michigan Man of the Year claim, which he just made again during a speech at the Ford factory in Michigan.
This time he went into more specificity.
"Years ago, long before I ever thought of the presidential situation, I was honoured in Michigan. And I said, how come you're losing so much of your car business to Mexico and other places. And I asked that question very innocently it was probably 10 years ago," Trump said.
"The Man of the Year, they named me man of the year in Michigan and I said what's going on in Michigan. And we stopped it. Thanks to a lot of great companies like Ford a lot of things are happening here."
The timing is a couple of years off from the fact check by CNN's Daniel Dale, who posits that it stems from a 2013 after-dinner speech where no such honour was bestowed.
Protestors dump black body bags on White House lawn
Demonstrators dumped fake body bags outside the White House and held up signs that read "Trump Lies, People Die," in protest at president Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The demonstration coincided with a separate protest outside the White House on Wednesday that called for the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the use of therapeutic drugs to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Demonstrators protesting the coronavirus response laid down fake black body bags, while the ALS protesters laid inside white ones across the street.
James Crump reports.
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