Trump Now Saying It's 'Patriotic' To Wear A Mask
Trump shared a photo taken earlier this month from the first time he was seen in public wearing a mask
Trump has been outspoken for months about his opinions on wearing a mask. Despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization state that they prevent the spread of the coronavirus and do, in fact, help, Trump has been dangerously anti-mask. However, it seems he’s changed his tune, albeit briefly, and finally tweeted a picture of himself wearing one and calling it “patriotic.”
“We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus,” Trump tweeted while still using a racist term to describe the virus. “Many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!”
The image was from his visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center earlier this month — his first and only time wearing one in public. Though hours later, he was seen at a DC fundraiser sans mask. So much for patriotism. Or common decency.
To recap the months since the pandemic started, when the CDC issued new guidelines in April recommending face coverings, Trump said he would likely not follow the suggestion. “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it,” Trump said at the time. “Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I just don’t see it.” He also commented in early May that experts are learning “the good and the bad, by the way. It’s not a one-sided thing, believe it or not.” He’s repeatedly said wearing a mask is a personal choice, then roasted Democratic nominee Joe Biden, for wearing one.
In recent weeks, Trump changed course, telling Fox News, “I’m all for masks,” adding that he would wear one “in a tight situation with people.” He then sat down for an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said his big issue with masks is that people fidget with them. “They put their finger on the mask, and they take them off, and then they start touching their eyes and touching their nose and their mouth,” he said. “And then they don’t know how they caught it?”
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1285301366659973123
But now it seems masks are a patriotic statement — if by patriotic he means finally putting American lives above his own agenda. Many, however, see this new turn on masks as being politically motivated. In recent weeks, high profile Republicans have broken with Trump about wearing a mask. “We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in early July. “Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves; it is about protecting everyone we encounter.” Senator Marco Rubio echoed his statement, saying, “Everyone should just wear a damn mask.”
“I’ll be right eventually,” Trump said during a sit down with Chris Wallace on Fox Sunday. Wallace then laughed, and Trump didn’t back down. “I said it’s going to disappear. I’ll say it again: It’s going to disappear — and I’ll be right.”
Information about COVID-19 is rapidly changing, and Scary Mommy is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. With news being updated so frequently, some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For this reason, we are encouraging readers to use online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.
