President Donald Trump continues to be himself, and therefore, he says something, and one hour later does the complete opposite.
In the early hours of Saturday, Trump made a bombshell announcement — he stated that he had plans to quarantine New York City’s metro area.
The Big Apple is now the epicenter of the coronavirus, with 728 deaths from the virus in the state and more than 29,777 cases in New York City.
Trump said: “We might not have to do it, but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine — short-term, two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey, certain parts of Connecticut.”
He went on to reveal: “They’re having problems down in Florida. A lot of New Yorkers are going down — we don’t want that.”
Many were shocked by the announcement, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who stated: “I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know what you would be accomplished; I don’t like the sound of it.”
The Democrat continued: “I don’t believe that he could be serious, that any federal administration could be serious about a physical lockdown of states or parts of states across this country. I don’t believe it is legal.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he was baffled by the news and added: “I literally saw the story as I was walking into the room. Until further notified, we are going to continue to do what we’re doing. Do we consider regularly taking further steps? You bet. Whether prompted by the president or more often than not our own. We will continue to be as aggressive as we have been, and not let up.”
The former reality TV star was quick to change his mind and instead issued this travel advisory: “On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the Governor’s of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the…Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary. Full details will be released by CDC tonight. Thank you!”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a domestic travel advisory: “This Domestic Travel Advisory does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply.”
Trump is keeping the media busy with the different updates.