Coronavirus US live: Trump appears without mask at Ford plant despite policy – as it happened

Live reporting on the coronavirus continues on Friday’s blog:

Wrapping up our live coverage of US politics for tonight, but you can follow our global coronavirus liveblog for more news.

An updated evening news summary:

• Trump chose not to wear a face mask during his tour of a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan, despite a company policy to do so. The president claimed he had worn a mask “in the back area” of the plant, something the company confirmed, but he said he did not want to give reporters “the pleasure” of seeing him wear it.
• Baltimore’s mayor asked Trump to reconsider his planned trip to the city, which is still under a stay-at-home order. “I wish that the president, as our nation’s leader, would set a positive example and not travel during this holiday weekend.” Democratic mayor Bernard Young said. A spokesman for the president said he would not change his plans.
• Trump reiterated his criticism of vote by mail. A day after threatening to withhold funding from Michigan and Nevada over their efforts to expand vote by mail, the president falsely claimed that mail-in ballots are very susceptible to fraud. (Voter fraud is actually very rare.)
• Congressman John Ratcliffe was confirmed as the next director of national intelligence. Ratcliffe’s nomination was approved in a party-line vote of 49-44, making the staunch Trump ally the first director of national intelligence to be confirmed in a partisan fashion.
• Michael Cohen was released from prison because of coronavirus concerns. The former Trump lawyer and fixer was released early to home confinement as concerns mount about the potential spread of coronavirus in prisons.
• The man who filmed the killing of unarmed jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia was arrested and charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. Attorneys representing Arbery’s family had previously called for William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. to be arrested because he helped trap Arbery as he was trying to flee from the two white men who later killed him.

‘How racist was Henry Ford?’

Trump’s praise of Henry Ford’s “bloodlines” at the Ford Factory has prompted an online discussion of just how racist and harmful the auto company founder was.

Yes, a giant portrait. As the Washington Post reported in 1998:

“I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration,” Hitler told a Detroit News reporter two years before becoming the German chancellor in 1933, explaining why he kept a life-size portrait of the American automaker next to his desk.

At Ford, Trump said he wore a mask in private; took it off in public

Journalist Bill Ritter, an anchor for an ABC news channel in New York City, initially shared a photograph of Donald Trump wearing a mask during a private viewing of Ford cars at a Ford plant in Michigan. The president did not wear the mask for the public part of his tour.

But Ritter later deleted the tweet with the photograph, explaining that ABC had initially released the photograph, then “ruled that they weren’t yet able to confirm the photo.”

Images of the president during the public tour without his mask have been shared widely.

Trump will ignore Baltimore mayor’s request not to visit city

A spokesperson for the president said he would continue with his planned visit to a national landmark to honor veterans, despite Baltimore’s mayor asking the president to stay home.

Baltimore is a majority-black city that had more than 4,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases Tuesday, the Baltimore Sun reported, as Maryland overall saw a single day high of 1,784 new reported cases.

Trump has previously maligned the city publicly as a “rat and rodent-infested mess”, and a “dangerous and filthy place” where “no human being would want to live”.

21 May 202018.04 EDT

Man who filmed Ahmaud Arbery's killing arrested, charged with felony murder

Sam Levine

The man who filmed the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the unarmed Georgia jogger killed in February, was arrested Thursday and charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. The man, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr, age 50, had maintained he was not involved in Arbery’s death in the Satilla Shores neighborhood, and merely recorded the now widely-circulated video of Gregory and Travis McMichael chasing down and killing Arbery.

Attorneys representing Arbery’s family had called for Bryan to be arrested because he helped trap Arbery, who was fleeing the McMichaels. The other two men were arrested earlier this month and face charges of murder and aggravated assault. Law enforcement in the area faces heavy scrutiny for their handling of the case. A local prosecutor recommended not bringing charges against the McMichaels in April before recusing himself from the case.

Ford Motor Company: We asked Trump to wear a mask

A spokesperson for Ford released a statement saying that Trump had worn a mask during part of his visit to a Michigan plant, but that he later removed it.

Ford’s executive chairman personally encouraged Trump to wear a mask, the company said.

“Bill Ford encouraged President Trump to wear a mask when he arrived. He wore a mask during a private viewing of three Ford GTs from over the years. The President later removed the mask for the remainder of the visit.”

Trump praises Henry Ford’s ‘bloodlines’

It’s not particularly surprising that Trump might praise Henry Ford during his visit to a Ford plant in Michigan. But Trump’s particular phrasing has raised some eyebrows, given that Ford was a notorious anti-Semite who used his wealth and influence to spread dangerous lies about Jewish people.

He talked about the company’s “bloodlines” and Ford’s “good blood”.

PBS has an interview with a scholar who provides more context on Ford’s antisemitism and its impact:

In 1918, Henry Ford purchased his hometown newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. A year and a half later, he began publishing a series of articles that claimed a vast Jewish conspiracy was infecting America... As one of the most famous men in America, Henry Ford legitimized ideas that otherwise may have been given little authority.

Trump on reopening churches and America’s ‘incredible comeback’

Wrapping up a speech at a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan, Trump promised that he was working on plans to allow churches to hold Sunday services again, and “you’re going to see something come out very soon.”

As the reported death toll nears 100,000, the president said the country was ready to bounce back.

“This country is poised for an epic comeback,” Trump said. “This is going to be an incredible comeback. Just watch. It’s already happening.”

“Americans who need and want to return to work should not be vilified,” he said, likely a reference to the harsh public reactions to the predominantly white Americans who have staged large and sometimes volatile protests in Michigan and other states. For many Americans, he said, especially those who work with their hands, “working remotely is just not an option.”

In states like Georgia that have already begun to reopen, the numbers of coronavirus cases are going down, Trump claimed, “and very substantially down”.

But as the Atlantic’s Ed Yong has explained yesterday, there’s a weeks-long lag between the time states make decisions, and the time those decisions translate into more or fewer cases. “May’s declining cases are the result of April’s physical distancing, and the consequences of May’s reopenings won’t be felt until June at the earliest,” he wrote.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over a blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Trump chose not to wear a face mask during his tour of a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan, despite a company policy to do so. The president claimed he had worn a mask “in the back area” of the plant, but he said he did not want to give reporters “the pleasure” of seeing him wear it.
• Baltimore’s mayor asked Trump to reconsider his planned trip to the city, which is still under a stay-at-home order. “I wish that the president, as our nation’s leader, would set a positive example and not travel during this holiday weekend.” Democratic mayor Bernard Young said.
• Trump reiterated his criticism of vote by mail. A day after threatening to withhold funding from Michigan and Nevada over their efforts to expand vote by mail, the president falsely claimed that mail-in ballots are very susceptible to fraud. (Voter fraud is actually very rare.)
• Congressman John Ratcliffe was confirmed as the next director of national intelligence. Ratcliffe’s nomination was approved in a party-line vote of 49-44, making the staunch Trump ally the first director of national intelligence to be confirmed in a partisan fashion.
• Michael Cohen was released from prison because of coronavirus concerns. The former Trump lawyer and fixer was released early to home confinement as concerns mount about the potential spread of coronavirus in prisons.

Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Delivering remarks at the Ford plant, Trump repeated the false claim that he was named Michigan Man of the Year before taking office.

CNN has a thorough debunking of that claim:

Trump started telling versions of the Man of the Year story two days before Election Day in 2016, when he was making a successful effort to win a state no Republican presidential candidate had carried since 1988.

Journalists tried and failed to figure out what he was talking about. (For one, the state does not have an official Man of the Year award. For two, Trump had never lived in Michigan.) ...

Then a former Republican congressman from Michigan, Dave Trott, contacted CNN and other news outlets to solve the mystery.

Trott offered a convincing explanation: Trump was talking about his speech at an event Trott had organized, a Lincoln Day dinner for Republicans in Oakland County, Michigan, in 2013.

There, Trott said, Trump gave a ‘rambling’ address resembling the one he says he did -- and Trott gave him a framed copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and other gifts. But Trott did not give him any Man of the Year award, and nor did anyone else.