From a very safe distance on Friday, Donald Trump urged his supporters to risk infection with the deadly coronavirus by attending in-person protests to “liberate” Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia from stay-at-home orders issued by their Democratic governors.

Pandemonium outside the Minnesota Governor’s Residence.



Horns are blaring. A few hundred people are here. Many chant “Open Up!” pic.twitter.com/xMGUtTjYQB — Theo Keith (@TheoKeith) April 17, 2020

The president, who is pursuing a transparent strategy of encouraging voters to blame the governors of states led by his political rivals for the economic hardship caused by the lockdowns he has endorsed, tweeted his support for the protests he learned about from Fox News.

I couldn't help but wonder as I photographed today's Minnesota protest.



1. How many didn't know they had it when they came here?

2. How many will get it here today?

3. Did I safely avoid it while doing my job?#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/ms9aJEelC1 — Glen Stubbe (@gspphoto) April 17, 2020

The protests spread to Texas on Saturday, with a gathering on the steps of the state Capitol in Austin organized by an Infowars host, where anti-vaccine activists brought their children and Trump supporters chanted “Fire Fauci!” in a scene recorded by Manny Fernandez of The New York Times and James Barragán of The Dallas Morning News.

Lots of protest speakers saying Trump should fire Fauci who they say “made up” the coronavirus. They call him Fascist Fauci pic.twitter.com/HzZBrPuSp7 — James Barragán (@James_Barragan) April 18, 2020

Hundreds of the president’s supporters also crowded together in Brookfield, Wisconsin on Saturday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Those protesters were cheered on by the Wisconsin branch of the Convention of States, a group that aims to amend the U.S. Constitution to make it more favorable to its donors, like the billionaire libertarian Charles Koch.

Lots of Patriots at today's Freedom Rally in Brookfield! pic.twitter.com/RTTHbU2A7o — @COSProjectWI (@COSProjectWI) April 18, 2020

The Convention of States is currently driving a sham “spontaneous citizen movement,” modeled on the fake grassroots Tea Party movement Koch also funded, to demand that government officials ignore public health and “Open the States.” As my colleague Lee Fang reported, Koch’s Americans For Prosperity is also working against the stay-at-home orders. The Wisconsin protests were also promoted by Bonnie Lee, a Republican candidate for the state legislature, who encouraged people to attend what she said “kinda feels like Fourth of July on steroids” in a YouTube video she later deleted. Several of the protesters who took to the streets this week described the lockdowns as deeply inconvenient. One man in a crowd outside the home of Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota on Friday held a sign reading: “I need a haircut.” Protesters in Michigan attending a rally organized by an adviser to the family of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, told Fox News on Wednesday that they were fed up with not being allowed to shop for lawn fertilizer or get their hair dyed.

The people protesting stay-at-home order in #Lansing right now are mostly white, wearing Trump hats, and flying Confederate flags.



They want more Americans to die just because they are tired of not being able to buy lawn fertilizer. ?#michiganshutdown pic.twitter.com/ZpzlfHf27B — Matt ? (@Anxious_Matt) April 15, 2020

The few dozen Trump supporters who gathered outside Virginia’s Executive Mansion on Thursday held signs with slogans like, “Stop the madness. It is just a cold virus.” One man in a red Make America Great Again cap told The Washington Post the virus was a “hoax.”

Demonstrators gathered outside Virginia's state capitol building to protest stay-at-home orders https://t.co/UIVwteJ1bs pic.twitter.com/Ulp3eJ83CN — Reuters (@Reuters) April 16, 2020

In a move that seemed to give the game away, Trump did not endorse similar protests in Ohio, Idaho and Florida, three states that are run by Republican governors.

Incredible photo of an anti-lockdown protest outside the statehouse in Ohio by @joshuabickel. pic.twitter.com/duVGBJKcFe — Seth Hettena (@seth_hettena) April 15, 2020

Exercising our rights today at the Capital in Boise Idaho! pic.twitter.com/b84fpM0aSQ — Corey Gardner (@rewiredtoday) April 18, 2020

Demonstrators are chanting “open up the state” in downtown Orlando @news6wkmg pic.twitter.com/rtMYiMOXKU — Erik Sandoval (@ErikSandoval) April 17, 2020

Trump’s support for the gatherings, as the national death toll reached 37,000, raised an obvious question. If he thinks it is safe enough for his followers to rally in large numbers as the virus still spreads unchecked, why doesn’t he leave the White House and join them? The likely answer is that Trump knows the gatherings are not safe but is running a sort of clinical trial of his famous theory that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any support. He never said anything about shooting himself.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, a frequent Trump target, accused the president of incitement. “The president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting Covid-19. His unhinged rantings and calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence. We’ve seen it before,” Inslee wrote. “The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies even while his own administration says the virus is real and is deadly, and that we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted,” he added. Inslee’s concerns seemed justified by images of heavily armed protesters in the crowd that rallied on the steps of the Michigan state capitol in Lansing on Wednesday to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order.

Going to do a thread of some photos from #OperationGridlock pic.twitter.com/Rj1E8pGTgv — Matt Schmucker (@mtschmucker) April 15, 2020