WASHINGTON – President Trump should fly to Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday to see the Comfort, a naval hospital ship that has been dispatched to New York, where it will help a state cope with the influx of coronavirus patients by 1,000 hospital beds are added to a system in shortage.
The 200-mile journey is the first time in nine days that Mr. Trump is leaving the White House, and his decision to turn the moment into a high-profile photo opportunity raised questions about security and the use of government resources at a time When the administration did so, own federal guidelines advise against most trips and gatherings with more than 10 people.
“We don’t need Donald Trump in Virginia to take a picture,” Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic governor of Virginia, said in an interview. “We need respirators and masks like every other country in the country. He should stay in Washington on his job. It is a waste of time. “Mr. McAuliffe said that a visit to the President at a naval base meant that officials dealing with a public health crisis instead” had to spend their time taking a photo of Trump’s re-election. He should be politics stop and lead the nation. “
On Friday, Mr. Trump defended his decision to see the ship as an important sign of support. “I have spirit for the country,” said the president at a press conference. “I won’t jump around in a group.”
“It’s like a tiny trip,” he continued. “I think it’s a good thing if I go there and I say thank you. We’ll be careful.”
When he left the White House on Saturday afternoon in light rain, Trump told reporters he was considering a two-week quarantine in New York, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut. “I would rather not do it, but we might need it,” he said. The president said he was considering restricting travel to and from these states “because they are having trouble in Florida and many New Yorkers are going under,” but he did not give details of how that would work.
Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper, his new chief of staff Mark Meadows and Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to the President, accompanied Mr. Trump on his trip to Norfolk. The trip was proposed, one official said, partly because the naval station is self-contained and doesn’t require Mr. Trump to be in public areas like a commercial airport. Vice President Mike Pence had previously visited the base when the Comfort was in port. In the midst of the pandemic, the ship’s departure to New York was viewed internally in the White House as a calming moment that the President was asked to highlight with a personal appearance.
Mr. Trump has been grounded in the White House since March 19, when he visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. His typical weekend golf round has been restricted since the virus broke out in the United States, as well as all planned weekend trips to his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He has become increasingly restless The White House complex, where he has watched the economic gains that are at the heart of his re-election campaign disappearing.
Mr Trump made it clear this week that visiting the ship could advertise. “I’ll kiss it goodbye,” he said. “I suspect the media will follow.”
The 894-foot ship, which is expected to arrive in New York Harbor on Monday, was in Norfolk Harbor and was repaired when the Pentagon offered to help respond to the pandemic. The ship is expected to accommodate patients with other diseases in New York so that hospitals can focus on the large number of coronavirus cases, the Navy said.
Mr Trump announced this week that the ship would arrive in New York weeks earlier than originally expected.
Comfort is no stranger to New York. The ship was sent to Manhattan after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It also served off Kuwait’s coast during Operation Desert Storm and was available in 1994 to rescue Cuban and Haitian migrants. More recently, the ship was dispatched to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.