Coronavirus US live: Trump under fire over golf trip as New York Times lists lives lost

White House public health adviser Dr Deborah Birx is appearing on Fox News Sunday and according to Fox News Sunday, she says: “President Trump does wear a mask when he is unable to social distance from others.”

Trump’s reluctance to wear a mask in public or apparently in private has become a running theme of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly since cases were confirmed in the White House, close to the president himself. This week, at a Ford plant in Michigan, Trump was pictured wearing one.

Not without connection to Trump’s stance, the wearing of masks in public, or not, has become a new front line in America’s culture war. Federal guidelines recommend it, some states demand it, and some do not. Some rightwing protesters have decried the wearing of masks.

On Saturday, video spread showing North Dakota governor Doug Burgum moved to tears while pleading for people not to “mask shame” those who choose to cover their noses and mouths in public. North Dakota does not mandate the wearing of masks.

Also from Fox News Sunday about its interview with Birx (which airs at 10am ET in New York): “Dr Deborah Birx says on Fox News Sunday she is still concerned with people going outside and not social distancing.”

Here’s a picture of Donald Trump shaking hands with a golfing partner in Virginia on Saturday:

Talk shows up.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett tells CNN’s State of the Union he expects unemployment to go “north of 20%” before any correction, which means figures will be higher in June. Nearly 40m Americans have filed for unemployment under the pandemic, after all.

Is it possible unemployment will still be in double digits in November when the country goes to the polls, Hassett is asked.

“Yes,” he says.

National security adviser Robert O’Brien has told CBS’s Face the Nation the election won’t be delayed, by the way.

Trump hopes an election held in an economic hole does not happen, to put it mildly, as he gears up for his election campaign against Joe Biden.

Unemployment will move back slowly, Hassett says, adding: “If there were a vaccine in July I would be way more optimistic about it.” There won’t be.

Hassett is also pressed on the prospects for the stimulus bill passed by the House but stalled in front of the Senate and the White House. He hedges but it’s clear there’s no significant movement.

Checking in on the catchweight bout of the century – or, well, today – between Donald Trump and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, better known as Jeff Sessions, the attorney general Trump tormented and fired over his recusal from overseeing the Russia investigation who is now running for his old Senate seat in Alabama while Trump torments him some more.

Sessions, on Saturday: “Mr President. Alabama can and does trust me, as do conservatives across the country. Perhaps you’ve forgotten. They trusted me when I stepped out and put that trust on the line for you. You and I fight for the same agenda. Tommy Tuberville [his Senate opponent, ahead in the polls, endorsed by Trump] is so weak he won’t debate me and too weak for Alabama.

“Alabama will vote for you this fall, but Alabama will not take orders from Washington on who to send to the Senate.”

Trump, in reply: “Jeff, you had your chance and you blew it. Recused yourself ON DAY ONE (you never told me of a problem), and ran for the hills. You had no courage, and ruined many lives. The dirty cops, and others, got caught by better and stronger people than you. Hopefully this slime will pay a big price.

“You should drop out of the race and pray that super liberal Doug Jones, a weak and pathetic puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi & Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, gets beaten badly. He voted for impeachment based on “ZERO”. Disgraced Alabama. Coach Tuberville will be a GREAT Senator!”

So there’s that:

Donald Trump has no public events scheduled today. It’s the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the American summer, and the weather forecast for Washington DC is, if not spectacular, not wet.

One would think it’s a toss-up whether the president stays in to rage tweet the morning shows – Dr Deborah Birx is up on a couple and seems sure to be asked about the president’s choice of activity on Saturday as the coronavirus death toll neared 100,000 – or heads back to Trump National in Sterling, Virginia.

While we wait – on the edges of our seats, I’m sure – to find out, here’s some further reading from our columnist Robert Reich, once labor secretary under Bill Clinton, on the great question of whether it’s safe for states to reopen their economies (or indeed their churches, as Trump demanded they do today):

…and welcome to another day of coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, and of course the politics around it. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been 1,613,302 confirmed cases in the US and 96,657 deaths.

Around 1,000 of those deaths, and a few details about the person behind each one, are featured on a New York Times front page which is making headlines of its own this morning. Also making headlines, Donald Trump’s decision to spend Saturday playing golf at his course in Virginia.

On Saturday night, the conservative never-Trumper, Lincoln Project member and husband of a senior Trump aide George Conway spliced the two images together on Twitter. It was a powerful juxtaposition.

Joe Biden’s campaign released an ad on the subject.

Public health experts including the White House’s own Dr Deborah Birx say golf is OK, with social distancing and other measures observed – Trump, not wearing a mask, was filmed shaking hands with a playing partner – as the country looks to open up its battered economy. So, like so much in politics, this is all about the optics.

It’s also all about the hypocrisy, of course, as all politics is. In this case, Trump used to batter Barack Obama for playing too much golf. In office, Trump has played more than 200 times – more than Obama did in his first term. Also, as the president played during a public health crisis it turned out, of course it did, that There Was A Tweet For That:

Trump did turn away from golf in the evening, though only to deliver a characteristic tweet storm from the confines of the White House. Among his targets for caustic comments and retweets in highly questionable taste: Nancy Pelosi, Stacey Abrams, Jeff Sessions and of course Biden.

Trump also once again insinuated, disgracefully, that former Republican congressman and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough might be guilty of murder. About the veracity or otherwise of that vicious claim, the Washington Post fact checker awards it its top rating of four Pinnochios and says: “We wish we had more to give.”