US President Donald Trump on Monday honored the US’ war dead in back-to-back Memorial Day appearances colored by an epic struggle off the battlefield, against the novel coronavirus.
Eager to demonstrate national revival from the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump doubled up on his public schedule while threatening to pull the US Republican National Convention out of Charlotte in August unless North Carolina’s Democratic governor gives a quick green light to the party’s plans to assemble en masse.
The US death toll from the pandemic approached 100,000. North Carolina two days earlier reported its largest daily increase yet in COVID-19 cases.
Trump first honored the nation’s fallen at Arlington National Cemetery.
Presidents on Memorial Day typically lay a wreath and speak at the hallowed burial ground in Virginia, but the pandemic made this year different.
Many attendees arrived wearing masks, but removed them for the outdoor ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Trump, mask-less as always in public, gave no remarks. He approached a wreath already in place, touched it and saluted.
Trump then traveled to Baltimore’s historic Fort McHenry, where he declared: “Together we will vanquish the virus and America will rise from this crisis to new and even greater heights. No obstacle, no challenge and no threat is a match for the sheer determination of the American people.”
He praised the tens of thousands of service members and US National Guard personnel “on the front lines of our war against this terrible virus.”
Trump tweeted his frustration with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who has been moving his state into a cautious reopening that would keep indoor entertainment venues, like its NBA arena, closed for the time being.
The state on Saturday reported a daily high of 1,100 new cases and has lost about 750 residents to the pandemic.
Trump said that Republicans would be “reluctantly forced” to find a convention site in another state unless Cooper can guarantee that the party would be able to fill its convention spaces, including the arena in Charlotte.
Cooper’s office said that state officials were working with the party on convention decisions.
Changing sites would be difficult for numerous reasons, including a contract between Republican officials and Charlotte leaders to hold the gathering there.
Trump is intent on accelerating his own schedule as he urges the country to get to work. This month, he has toured factories in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan that make medical supplies.
He plans to be in Florida today to watch two NASA astronauts rocket into space, and he played golf at his private club in Virginia over the weekend.
The Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine commemorates the site where Francis Scott Key wrote a poem after a huge US flag was hoisted to celebrate an important victory over the British during the War of 1812. That poem became The Star-Spangled Banner.
The fort is closed to the public because of the pandemic.
Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young objected to Trump’s visit in advance, saying that it sends the wrong message about stay-at-home directives and that the city could not afford the added cost of hosting him when it is losing US$20 million per month because of the pandemic.
He cited the disproportionate effect the coronavirus has had on his city and called on Trump to “set a positive example” by not traveling during the holiday weekend.
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