After Months of Refusing to Wear a Mask, Trump Finally Dons One to Visit Walter Reed Hospital
ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images
As the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across America, infecting millions and killing more than a hundred and thirty thousand people, President Donald Trump has notably disdained wearing a face mask, even mocking his political rivals for doing so, but he finally donned one on Saturday, for a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
The president was spotted wearing what appeared to be a dark navy fabric mask custom-made for him, with the presidential seal on one side as he walked through the military hospital accompanied by several staffers, in a planned visit to wounded combat veterans being treated there.
#BREAKING: President Trump visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He is wearing a mask. pic.twitter.com/uZOzM4Lpvs
— The Hill (@thehill) July 11, 2020
Since the pandemic began in March, Trump has refused to wear a face mask, even going so far as to repeatedly mock political rivals like his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, for wearing one. Last month, Trump visited a Maine factory that manufactures sterile cotton swabs to be used in coronavirus test kits, and the factory discarded the entire day’s production after the president toured the factory floor without wearing a mask.
The decision to wear one to Walter Reed on Saturday came after reported “pleading” by Trump’s aides, and Trump made comments to reporters on Friday that emphasized that because Walter Reed was a hospital, a mask would be a “very appropriate thing.”
“”I’ll probably have a mask if you must know,” said Trump, “I’ll probably have a mask. I think when you’re in a hospital especially in that particular setting, where you are talking to a lot of soldiers, people that in some cases just got off the operating table. I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask. I’ve never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place.”
