A week after he publicly donned a face mask for the first time following months of refusal, President Donald Trump—who still opposes a nationwide mask mandate—posted a photo of himself with a face mask while declaring that “many people say” that it’s “patriotic” to wear a mask.
“We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance,” he wrote. “There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!”
In an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, the president—who has only publicly worn a mask once and defied mask guidelines in the past—said he was a “believer in masks” while stopping short of endorsing a federal mandate, saying he’ll leave it up to the governors. On Monday morning, meanwhile, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams literally begged Fox News viewers to wear masks to stem the spread of the virus that’s killed over 140,000 Americans.
