Trump news: President says some states could reopen 'literally tomorrow' as White House taskforce unveils new guidelines
White House plan for 'Opening Up America Again' draws fire as president claims 'national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution'
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Donald Trump has said the US will investigate a conspiracy theory surrounding the coronavirus suggesting it originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and was originally intended as a weapon for use in biological warfare, with secretary of state Mike Pompeo urging Beijing to “come clean” on the matter.
While the president was triggering a new constitutional crisis by threatening to adjourn Congress on Wednesday over a minor political grievance, his supporters were staging protests across the country against ongoing stay-at-home orders, with armed demonstrators chanting “Lock her up!” outside the offices of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.
After teasing out the release of a set of "guidelines" for state and local government to begin reopening during the pandemic, the president unveiled his MAGA-referencing "Opening Up America Again" plan, which he said could allow some states to begin reopening "literally tomorrow" despite criticisms that the plan doesn't offer any worker protections or consistent enforcement to prevent a spike in outbreaks.
He said his guidelines offer a "phased, deliberate approach" for states to re-open businesses, after the president has grown impatient with a stalled economy in the wake of the pandemic.
Mr Trump said "a national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution."
The president told governors on Thursday that "you're going to be calling the shots" despite telling Americans just days earlier that he has "total authority" to end quarantine and other mitigation efforts.
Ronald Klain, who led the Ebola response under former president Barack Obama, said that the "plan" is "barely a PowerPoint."
Meanwhile, the president's approval rating dropped six percentage points within the first weeks of April, marking the largest point drop in his presidency, according to Gallup.
His current 43 per cent rating, however, still hovers above his 40 per cent average.
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Almost 25 per cent of Americans believe coronavirus was man-made in a laboratory
I mentioned the president's plans to investigate the Wuhan conspiracy theory earlier - here's a chart that explains the extent to which the idea has gained traction with the US public.
(Statista)
Here's Andrew Naughtie with more on the Wuhan theory.
Rudy Giuliani cronies Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman have trials delayed because of coronavirus
Remember these two comedians?
They pled not guilty to campaign finance violations some months ago and subsequently turned out to know a lot about the president and his lawyer's murky dealings in Ukraine, which we might have heard about had the Senate taken his impeachment seriously.
They won't now face trial until next February, says John T Bennett.
‘He doesn’t care about you’
Hawaii's Democratic senator Brian Schatz has been speaking to Chris Hayes on MSNBC and offered this damning assessment of the man in the Oval Office: “It was President Trump’s ignoring of scientific expertise that got us into this situation, in which we have mass preventable deaths. And he’s going to cause additional mass preventable deaths if he ignores the expertise because he has artificial deadlines.”
'Despite Trump’s agenda, there are real reasons to criticise the World Health Organisation'
For Indy Premium, Kim Sengupta says the president is not altogether wrong in going after the WHO.
President continues love affair with One America News
Here's Trump's first tweet of the day, which sees him quote another questionable poll courtesy of OANN - a network he is increasingly favouring, perhaps in the hope of making Fox jealous.
Trump childishly taunts Nancy Pelosi after she labels him 'weak'
The president is now being nasty to the House speaker, quoting Sean Hannity's latest attack on her after she wrote a stinging letter to Democratic colleagues earlier this week damning his leadership through the crisis.
US paying premium to third-party vendors to secure N95 masks
The Trump administration has awarded bulk contracts to third-party vendors in recent weeks as part of its scramble to obtain N95 respirator masks and the US government has paid those companies more than $5 (£3.99) per unit - nearly eight times the price in January and February when US intelligence agencies warned of a looming global pandemic, procurement records show.
Bankruptcy, murder and murky finances: The truth behind the WWE owner Trump just appointed an economic advisor
The president announced earlier this week that wrestling great Vince McMahon would be joining his panel of sporting commissioners advising him on when to restart the US economy following the coronavirus shutdown.
Trump's ties to professional wrestling are well documented - the sport has even been credited with helping him find his voice as a populist politician through his various cameo appearances in the ring.
But the decision to appoint McMahon (a controversial figure, to say the least) just so happens to follow Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis allowing the sport to resume bouts as an "essential service" to the public, flying in the face of Covid-19 concerns, a coincidence that has raised eyebrows among close observers.
Here's Greg Evans for Indy100 with the piece he was born to write.
'Reopening Congress? It’s not as easy as you think'
Here's what it actually involves to reconvene the House of Representatives and Senate - it's a far more complicated task than you might have imagined with the safety of 500 lawmakers and 10,000 staff to consider.
Police find 17 bodies at New Jersey nursing home hit by coronavirus after anonymous tip
“They were just overwhelmed by the number of people who were expiring,” said Eric C Danielson, the police chief of Andover, Sussex County, after his officers made the grisly discovery having been called to investigate the case of a body reportedly being stored in a garden shed.
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