Tensions between US President Donald Trump and the governors of certain states over the management of the Covid-19 epidemic have produced unexpected, and potentially dramatic, developments in recent days in the United States. Thirteen men belonging to the supremacist movement were arrested on October 8, while planning to kidnap Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer; they criticized him in particular for his measures taken to contain the virus.
Like several of her Democratic colleagues, this elected official has been the target of the American president for several months. As early as mid-April, echoing anti-confinement activists, Mr. Trump called for “Liberate Michigan”. The country then recorded some 2,000 daily victims of Covid-19. With 215,000 victims, it now has the highest death toll in the world.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Trump administration has worked to minimize the health crisis; its policy to fight against the spread of the virus has proved to be erratic, marked by a partisan approach and a variable geometry reading of American federalism.
This strategy has brought to light the conflicts between the prerogatives of the States and the decisions or declarations coming from Washington. Faced with the changes of foot of the president, in turn convinced that he “Had no responsibility” in the initial failures of the screening policy, then that he had “Total authority” on the lifting of the containment measures decreed at the state level, the governors had to use their room for maneuver.
Thus, at the end of March, only ten days after the start of confinement, Mr. Trump announced a reopening of the country. ” for Easter “, most of the Democratic States and a handful of Republican States, on the contrary, reinforced the restrictive measures: closing shops and schools, teleworking, physical distancing, wearing of a mask … Subsequently, when the presidential speech questioned the The usefulness of the tests, many states have accelerated these procedures.
The president did not appreciate, either, the concerted initiatives of several governors of neighboring states, Democrats and Republicans, to impose quarantine and containment measures, then reopening phases … In this context, the governor of the New York State Andrew Cuomo has become the President’s pet peeve for his strict handling of the pandemic. States at odds with presidential declarations have faced threats from the White House: in July, a Tweet from Mr. Trump referred to the withdrawal of federal funding for schools not reopening their doors …
You have 56.55% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
