Trump calls churches ‘essential,’ says governors must reopen during COVID-19 pandemic
President Donald Trump is calling churches “essential” during the coronavirus pandemic, telling state governors to allow houses of worship to reopen.
Trump directed the CDC to issue guidance for faith communities to reopen for services ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
“Today, I’m identifying houses of worship — church, synagogues and mosques — as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump said.
He called on governors to immediately allow churches to reopen, despite concerns from public health experts that allowing large gatherings will increase deaths and cases from COVID-19.
“If there’s any question, they’re going to have to call me,” Trump said of governors. “But they’re not going to be successful in that call.”
It’s unclear to some state leaders what power Trump possesses to force them to allow churches to reopen.
David Postman, chief of staff to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, said the state doesn’t understand the president’s comments nor has it seen a formal order, according to The New York Times.
“We don’t believe the president has the ability to dictate what states can and cannot open,” Postman told The New York Times.
In Rhode Island, Gov. Gina Raimondo tweeted she plans to attend church — when the state intends to reopen them at the end of May.
“In times of crisis, many of us turn to our faith communities,” Raimondo tweeted. “While this pandemic requires us to limit gatherings to 5 people or fewer, (Rhode Island’s) faith leaders are connecting worshipers through virtual and drive-through services in accordance with our public health guidance.”
Across the country, churches have filed lawsuits against state governments that have limited worship gatherings in public health guidelines. added two examples in links
On Thursday, Trump hinted at his new directive at a roundtable with African American leaders in Michigan, saying reopening churches was important to the “psyche” of the country, ABC News reported.
“The churches are not being treated with respect by a lot of the Democrat governors,” Trump said, according to ABC. “I want to get our churches open...and we’re gonna take a very strong position on that very soon.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has pushed for houses of worship to reopen ahead of a holiday weekend. In March, Trump told reporters he hoped for churches to be full on Easter Sunday, McClatchy News reported.
The U.S. had more than 95,000 coronavirus deaths and 1.5 million confirmed cases as of Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Trump calls churches ‘essential,’ says governors must reopen during COVID-19 pandemic."