In a series of all-caps tweets that started two minutes after a Fox News report on the protesters, the president declared, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” — two states whose Democratic governors have imposed strict social distancing restrictions. He also lashed out at Virginia, where the state’s Democratic governor and Legislature have pushed for strict gun control measures, saying: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nation’s governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.


His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement Thursday night suggested Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base.

Echoed across the Internet and on cable television by conservative pundits and ultraright conspiracy theorists, his tweets were a remarkable example of a president egging on demonstrators and helping to stoke an angry fervor.

In another series of tweets Friday, Trump returned again to the kind of rank partisanship that has characterized much of his time in office, rekindling a fight with Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, only days after heaping praise on him, by saying that the state’s chief executive should “spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’ ”

The retort came after Cuomo said that New York could not fully reopen its economy without more widespread testing and help from the federal government. Even before Cuomo had finished speaking during his televised daily briefing, Trump lashed out, tweeting, “We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing that you should be doing.” He said Cuomo owed the federal government a thank-you.


“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Cuomo responded in real time. “Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego if we can. Because this is about the people.”

The governor added that he had already repeatedly thanked the federal government for its aid.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do — send a bouquet of flowers?” Cuomo said.

In unveiling guidelines Thursday evening at the White House that governors could use to decide when it was safe to phase out restrictions, Trump had taken a more measured tone, emphasizing that “we are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time.”

The guidelines recommended lifting the restrictions in three phases once states experience 14 days in which testing is available, the number of cases declines, and hospitals are not overwhelmed. In Phase 1, some businesses could open but schools would remain closed. In Phase 2, more people could return to work while continuing social distancing. And by Phase 3, most of American life could return to something close to normal.

But the president’s message to governors that “you’re going to call your own shots” quickly gave way to a more strident one by Friday.

Trump’s call for liberation from social distancing rules followed protests around the country as protesters — many wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats — congregated in packed groups around state capitols to demand that restrictions be immediately lifted and to demonize their Democratic governors.


In Michigan, protesters waved banners in support of Trump and protested Governor Gretchen Whitmer by chanting, “Lock her up.” In St. Paul, Minn., a group calling itself “Liberate Minnesota” rallied against stay-at-home orders in front of the home of Governor Tim Walz, demanding he “end this lockdown!” In Columbus, Ohio, protesters crowded closely together as they pressed up against the doors of the state’s Capitol.

By embracing the backlash to the coronavirus restrictions, Trump is tapping into a powerful well of political energy as he seeks reelection this year. The president is also trying to deflect anger about his response to the virus away from him and toward Democratic governors, who he hopes will shoulder the blame for keeping the restrictions in place and for any deaths that occur after states reopen.

The pressure to reopen the economy comes amid skyrocketing jobless claims and an unemployment rate that is approaching 17 percent, higher than any mark since the Great Depression. On Friday, several governors began responding to that pressure by taking their first, tentative steps toward loosening the rules about work, school, and socializing.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that by next Friday all retail establishments, not just grocery stores, could operate what he called “retail to go” services in which customers pick up items or have items delivered, but do not physically go inside to shop.


Parks will reopen Monday, but visitors will be required to wear face coverings and follow social distancing rules, while schools would remain closed for in-person instruction for the rest of the school year.

“Opening Texas must occur in stages,” Abbott said.

In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine, another Republican, said that as businesses reopen, they will have to enforce 6-foot distancing, mask-wearing, and staggered arrival and lunch times.

Elsewhere, cities and states and corporations took other steps. In Florida, the mayor of Jacksonville announced that beaches and parks would reopen Friday, as long as visitors practiced social distancing. In Washington state, where the virus first emerged and shut down life for weeks, Boeing announced plans to resume commercial airplane production and bring about 27,000 employees back to work, many as soon as next week.

In Vermont, the governor gave the green light to property managers, real estate agents, and some construction crews to return to work, but said they must comply with social distancing and mask-wearing.

But frustration continued to mount over the lack of widespread testing for the coronavirus.

Questions about testing dominated a contentious, hour-long conference call between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic senators Friday as the lawmakers pressed administration officials on the availability of testing and on other specifics, according to senators and other officials who were on the call.

At one point, the normally mild-mannered Senator Angus King, a Maine independent, told Pence and other administration officials that the government’s failure to develop a national testing regimen was a ‘‘dereliction of duty’’ and declared that ‘‘I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life.’’


Material from The Washington Post was used in this report.