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President Donald Trump deemed churches and other houses of worship “essential” and called on governors across the country to allow them to reopen this weekend, even as some parts of the nation remain under coronavirus lockdown. (May 22)
AP Domestic
WASHINGTON — In what is perhaps the latest sign that the White House is eager to project a sense of normalcy during the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump returned to the golf course Saturday.
The president arrived at his Trump National golf club in Northern Virginia wearing a white baseball cap and polo shirt. It marked the president’s first trip to the course — a favorite of his —since the pandemic began.
As much of the nation reamined indoors under stay-at-home orders, Trump stayed in the White House for most of April. Trump left the White House at the end of the month to travel to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, and has traveled to several states to tour coronavirus response efforts.
Golf courses in Virginia remained open under Governor Ralph Northam’s stay-at-home orders.
He last visited his Virginia golf course in October of 2019, though he also visited his course in Florida in March.
The White House did not respond to a request for information about the president’s activities. The Trump White House rarely confirms that the president is playing golf.
Trump’s trip came a day after Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said that the Washington, D.C., metro area has the highest positive COVID rate of any city in the country. Birx suggested that Americans could “potentially” play golf if they are “very careful and you don’t touch the flags, and all of those issues.”
More: President Trump identifies churches, synagogues, mosques as ‘essential places’
The president’s decision to visit his golf course drew fire from critics on social media, many of whom noted that the nation is inching toward 100,000 deaths from the virus.
“And where, this Memorial Day weekend, is Trump? Working hard to avoid the next 100,000 deaths?” tweeted John Weaver, a GOP consultant and frequent Trump critic. “No. He’s golfing, which is Lazy Caligula’s form of fiddling.”
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