“Petulant Child” Trump Goes to War With Michigan A.G. Over His Refusal to Wear a Mask

Donald Trump was spotted by TMZ finally donning a face mask in public during his Thursday visit to a Michigan Ford factory, though only for part of the time. Ford noted in a statement that Trump was “encouraged” by the company’s executive chairman to put on a mask and wore one “during a private viewing of three Ford GTs,” but “later removed the mask for the remainder of the visit” at the facility, which has been partially turned into a ventilator-manufacturing site. Out of spite, he appeared mask-less when speaking to reporters, telling them, “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.” The president went forward with his sporadic mask-on, mask-off routine even after Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel warned him and the company that there would be consequences if Trump ignored the statewide requirement that face coverings be worn in enclosed public spaces.

“The president is like a petulant child who refuses to follow the rules,” Nessel told CNN on Thursday. “This is no joke.” She added that Trump’s flippancy sends the “worst possible message” to Americans and that he has a “legal” and “moral responsibility” to wear one, just as everyone else is required to do. “I hope that the voters of Michigan will remember this when November comes. That he didn’t care enough about their safety, he didn’t care about their welfare, he didn’t respect them enough just to engage in the very simple task, the painless task, the easy task of wearing a mask when he was provided one,” said Nessel, before noting that she plans on having a “very serious conversation with Ford in the event that they permitted the president to be in publicly enclosed places in violation of the order.”

In response, Trump lashed out at the attorney general on Twitter late Thursday night. “The Wacky Do Nothing Attorney General of Michigan, Dana Nessel, is viciously threatening Ford Motor Company for the fact that I inspected a Ventilator plant without a mask. Not their fault, & I did put on a mask,” he wrote. “No wonder many auto companies left Michigan, until I came along!” He followed up several minutes later with a second tweet attacking Nessel, writing that she “should not be taking her anger and stupidity out on Ford Motor—they might get upset with you and leave the state, like so many other companies have—until I came along and brought business back to Michigan.” The president’s politicized mask-lessness is particularly notable given that he was recently potentially exposed to two COVID-19-positive White House staffers and is concerned enough about contracting the virus that he claims to have been ingesting hydroxychloroquine, an immunosuppressive and an unproven treatment, for roughly two weeks—but still won’t follow the uniform advice of medical experts and wear a face covering.

Trump’s aversion to masks is consistent with his opposition to medical and scientific advice that runs contrary to his personal beliefs or policies. This week alone, he condemned a Veterans Administration study on hydroxychloroquine, which found it be ineffective—and at worst, dangerous—in treating coronavirus, calling it “a Trump enemy statement,” and accused Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health of publishing “a political hit job” after it concluded that 55% of reported COVID-19 fatalities in the U.S. could have been avoided if social distancing measures were initiated a week prior.

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