President
Donald Trump on Monday called masks “patriotic” and said on
Twitter “there is nobody more Patriotic than me.”
But hours later, he was seen without his patriotism.
Footage from a fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in
Washington shows multiple people in attendance, including the president, without a mask.
Health experts have been calling on people to wear face coverings when in public to help stop the spread of the Covid-19
Coronavirus infection, but Trump has only rarely been seen in one, and has resisted calls for a national mandate.
Trump raised $5 million at the event, according to CBS. DC Mayor @MurielBowser’s Phase Two guidelines state that all hotel employees and guests wear masks.This video is from the Trump International Hotel in DC, where Trump attended a fundraiser Monday night. https://t.co/vYCPpTk5DT— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 21, 2020During an interview with
Fox News on Sunday, Trump repeated his unsubstantiated claim that the pathogen will simply “disappear” one day.
Meanwhile, his administration’s top public health officials were sounding the alarm about the virus, which they warned would likely have devastating impacts on
American lives for months to come.
The US is currently leading the world in known coronavirus infections and deaths, with over 3.8 million cases and 140,000 deaths recorded nationwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.