WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after threatening to withhold funds over Michigan’s mail-in ballot effort, President Donald Trump was set to visit the electoral battleground Thursday to learn how the medical breathing machines governors begged for during the height of the coronavirus pandemic are made.
An executive order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer requires factories to suspend all nonessential in-person visits, including tours, though Nessel said her office would not bar Trump.
The Republican president and Whitmer, a Democrat, have clashed during the coronavirus outbreak over her criticism of the federal government’s response to the state’s needs for medical equipment, like ventilators, and personal protective gear, such as gloves, masks and gowns.
On Wednesday, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from Michigan after its secretary of state mailed absentee ballot applications to millions of voters.
At the White House, Trump said he and Whitmer in their call discussed the coronavirus pandemic and the catastrophic flooding and mass evacuations caused by the failure of dams in the state’s central region — not his tweeted threat to withhold federal money.
