On June 5, Trump paid a visit to the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, Maine, one of two factories in the United States manufacturing the special medical swabs used in testing people for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the president neglected to wear any kind of personal protective equipment during the tour, and as a result, the factory has now announced it will be forced to destroy all of the swabs made during the visit.
“The incredible workers of this company have carried on the noble tradition of American manufacturing excellence for more than 100 years,” Trump said at the appearance. “Now our nation has turned to you as we massively increase our unrivaled testing capacity.”
“We’re doing a great job with the testing. And you’re doing a fantastic job in getting out the swabs,” he added later. A vast increase in COVID-19 testing is necessary before states can begin to reopen from lockdowns, making Puritan’s products essential for restarting the US economy.
In photos from the visit, Trump is seen without a mask or gloves, while the factory workers around him all are wearing protective masks, gloves, hair coverings, lab coats - even plastic booties over their shoes.
"The running of the factory machines is very limited today and will only occur when the president is touring the facility floor," Puritan marketing manager Virginia Templet told USA Today about the Friday visit. "Swabs produced during that time will be discarded."
“President Trump shouldn't have come to Maine for a photo op, but that's exactly what he did,” Sara Gideon, the speaker of Maine’s House of Representatives, said in a Friday tweet. “Now Maine frontline workers have to throw away crucial testing supplies that states across the country desperately need as they combat coronavirus.”
Ross LaJeunesse, a Democratic candidate who ended his campaign for a US Senate seat in March, was more laconic: “thanks, president jacka**.”
thanks, president jackass https://t.co/X4vyVzJzff
— Ross LaJeunesse (@RossforMaine) June 6, 2020
Trump’s disdain for personal protective equipment is well known.
"I don't think I'm going to be doing it,” Trump told a reporter at the White House in early April during a news conference in which it was announced the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be releasing guidelines for Americans to make their own masks in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
"The masks, it’s going to be really a voluntary thing, you can do it,” Trump continued. “I’m choosing not to do it … it’s voluntary."
And for both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, it has been. A May 5 visit to the Honeywell International factory in Arizona, which produces high-quality N95 protective masks, Trump was photographed wearing goggles but no mask while standing next to a sign that read “Attention: Face Mask Required in this Area. Thank You!”
Trump not wearing mask but goggles at Honeywell facility. Other aides not wearing masks at all. Sign in facility says “face mask required in this area.” pic.twitter.com/Uq7Fr2ioeS
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 5, 2020
Later, during a visit to the Ford automobile facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Trump retorted to a reporter challenging him for not wearing a mask that he “had one on before,” but “didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”
Pence, too, didn’t wear a mask when he visited Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic in late April. The hospital noted it had informed the vice president of the requirement, but he responded he wanted to “look [the medical professionals] in the eye and say thank you." A mask, of course, does not obscure one’s vision, as many critics quickly pointed out.
