President Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nation’s governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.
In a series of all-caps tweets that started two minutes after a Fox News report on the protesters, the President declared, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” — two states whose Democratic governors have imposed strict social distancing restrictions. He also lashed out at Virginia, where the state’s Democratic governor and legislature have pushed for strict gun control measures, saying: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement on Thursday night suggested Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base.
Echoed across the Internet and on cable television by conservative pundits and ultraRight conspiracy theorists, his tweets were a remarkable example of a President egging on demonstrators and helping to stoke an angry fervour that in its anti-government rhetoric was eerily reminiscent of the birth of the Tea Party movement a decade ago.
In another series of tweets on Friday, the President returned again to the kind of rank partisanship that has characterised much of his time in office, rekindling a fight with governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, only days after heaping praise on him. Cuomo, he said, should “spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining’”.
The retort came after the governor said that New York could not fully re-open its economy without more widespread testing and help from the federal government.
Even before Cuomo had finished speaking during his televised daily briefing, Trump lashed out, tweeting, “We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing that you should be doing.” He said Cuomo owed the federal government a thank-you.
“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Cuomo responded in real time.
“Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego if we can. Because this is about the people.”
The governor added that he had repeatedly thanked the federal government for its aid.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do — send a bouquet of flowers?” Cuomo asked.
In unveiling guidelines on Thursday evening at the White House that governors could use to decide when it was safe to phase out restrictions, Trump had taken a more measured tone, emphasising that “we are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time”.
Trump’s call for liberation from social distancing rules followed protests around the country as protesters congregated in packed groups around state capitols to demand that restrictions be immediately lifted and to demonise their Democratic governors.
In Michigan, protesters waved banners in support of Trump and protested governor Gretchen Whitmer by chanting, “Lock her up”.
In St Paul, Minnesota, a group calling itself “Liberate Minnesota” rallied against stay-at-home orders in front of the home of governor Tim Walz, demanding he “end this lockdown!” In Columbus, Ohio, protesters crowded closely together as they pressed up against the doors of the state’s Capitol.
Speaking on Friday evening at the White House, the President expressed sympathy for the protesters for having to endure what he called “too tough” social distancing orders in their states, and he dismissed concerns that they could spread the virus by holding demonstrations.
