Michigan Attorney General Asks Trump to Wear a Mask During Upcoming Tour

President Donald Trump, flanked by officials and business leaders, announces a national emergency with regard to the coronavirus in the White House Rose Garden in Washington on March 13, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

President Donald Trump should wear a mask while touring a Ford plant in Michigan, the state’s attorney general said Wednesday.

Trump is scheduled to visit a manufacturing plant in Rawsonville Thursday.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released an open letter (pdf) appealing to the president to don a face covering when he enters the building.

“I ask that while you are on tour you respect the great efforts of the men and women at Ford—and across this state—by wearing a facial covering,” Nessel wrote.

“Anyone who has potentially been recently exposed, including the President of the United States, has not only a legal responsibility, but also a social and moral responsibility, to take reasonable precautions to prevent further spread of the virus.”

Nessel said she wouldn’t move to block Trump from entering the plant if he doesn’t wear a mask.

Neither Trump nor his presumptive rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, have been seen in public with a mask on.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, on May 1, 2020. (MSNBC's Morning Joe via AP)

Ford policy dictates visitors wear masks and other person protective equipment but the White House “has its own safety and testing policies in place and will make its own determination,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s current stay-at-home order requires people to wear facial coverings if “medically able.” Those who don’t aren’t punished.

Federal officials for months said only people who were sick should wear masks but abruptly reversed the policy in April, urging everyone to wear masks when in areas where maintaining six feet from non-household members is difficult.

They cited the growing body of research that suggests people who become infected with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus can spread the virus even if they don’t show symptoms.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested daily to see if they have the virus.

Pence faced criticism for not wearing a mask in late April while visiting the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He said a few days later he should have and wore one while visiting a General Motors plant in Indiana. He’s since donned a covering in Washington at the U.S. Capitol and in other places.

After Trump revealed he’s been taking hydroxychloroquine to try to prevent becoming infected with the new virus, Pence said he is not.