May 26 Coronavirus Update from the White House

Reopening Houses of Worship

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I am identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogue[s], and mosques as essential places that provide essential services. Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship. It’s not right, so I am correcting this injustice.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now. If there is any question, they’re going to have to call me, but they’re not going to be successful in that call. These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now – for this weekend. If they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “The President’s been very clear. He wants churches to reopen. He wants them to do it safely. He wants them to do it in accordance with our guidance. It’s laid out very detailed. It’s posted now, so you can all take a look at it through it and he wants to see all of those churches open in a safe fashion.”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “I am thankful that we have a President that celebrates the First Amendment, the same amendment that gives you all the ability to ask me questions is there to have the freedom of worship. So imams and pastors can go to their churches, can go to their places of worship, and can celebrate what is a First Amendment right in this country – which is to pray to your God and to practice your faith.”

Fighting the Invisible Eenemy

1. DEBORAH BIRX: “I wanted to start out with a summary of the number of Americans we have lost to date, but the exciting thing for all of us is the decreasing mortality overtime. And I think it both is a real aspect of the amazing health care workers on the frontline.”
2. DEBORAH BIRX: “We can see now that there is over a 50% decline in new hospitalizations. Although, every region of the country is different, we are encouraged to see these new hospitalizations declining.”
3. DEBORAH BIRX: “I think we can see as a country, we have decreasing amount of illness both in the emergency room and reported through the influenza-like illness to the surveillance systems at the CDC.”
4. DEBORAH BIRX: “The number one metro with the highest positivity rate is the District of Columbia, which includes Northern Virginia and Maryland, Montgomery County, and P.G. County. That is followed by Baltimore, Chicago, and Minneapolis. And so these are the places where we have seen, really, a stalling or an increase of cases, as in Minneapolis. You can see all the other metros, all the other metros are almost all exclusively below 10%. So, we see this is great progress across the board in the metro areas.”

Testing and Contact Tracing

1. DEBORAH BIRX: “Since the last two months, we’ve gone from, I think, less than 4,000 contact tracers to nearly 50,000 contact tracers. And this is what’s been happening behind-the-scenes.”
2. DEBORAH BIRX: “We only have a million nursing home residents. We’re testing way over a million people per week, getting closer to over 2 million people a week. So, over that 4 million per two weeks, I was hoping that a million of those could be our nursing home residents.”
3. DEBORAH BIRX: “This is the progress that we are making in both expanding testing, finding more people, but ensuring that we are getting testing rates at about 10 percent.”
4. DEBORAH BIRX: “42 states are now have less than 10 percent test positive on a rolling seven-day average.”

Opening Up America Again

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “It’s encouraging to see that America’s reopening. Alongside that, with home-based data from Homebase, noting that two thirds of America’s small businesses are opening. An OpenTable study said Americans are now starting to dine out again. Another Homebase study – 67% of local food and drink businesses are open. Apple is saying Americans are driving and walking at near normal levels and Google mobility data reflects the same.”

President Trump Donating His Salary

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “I wanted to note that the President, as you all are well aware, donates his salary to various initiative and parts across the federal government. In this quarter, he will be donating his salary to HHS – Health and Human Services – to develop new therapies for treating and preventing COVID-19 so that we can safely reopen.”

Questions for the Obama Administration

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “I laid out a series of questions that any good journalist would want to answer about why people were unmasked and all sorts of questions. And I just wanted to follow-up with you guys on that, did anyone take it upon themselves to pose questions about Michael Flynn and unmasking to President Obama’s spokesperson?”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “Why did the Obama Administration use opposition research, funded by a political organization and filled with foreign dirt, to surveille members of the Trump Campaign?”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “Why was Lieutenant General Michael Flynn unmasked, not by the intel community entirely, but by Obama’s chief of staff, by the Former Vice President Joe Biden, by Susan Rice, by the treasury secretary?”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “Why was Flynn’s identity leaked in a criminal act? It is a criminal act to leak the identity of Michael Flynn to the press, but it happened. Where are the questions to Obama’s spokesperson?”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “Why did James Clapper, John Brennan, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice privately admit under oath they had no evidence of collusion, while saying the opposite publically?”

PRESS SECRETARY MCENANY: “It’s a long weekend. You guys have three days to follow up on those questions, and I certainly hope the next time I ask some hands go up, because Obama’s spokesperson should be asked those questions.”