After encouraging rallies against stay-at-home orders on Twitter, President Trump praised the protesters during his Friday press briefing, describing them as being "very responsible." And conservative commentator Stephen Moore, one of the president's economic advisors, has been taking this praise even further, dubbing the protesters, who risk furthering the spread of a virus that has already claimed more than 30,000 American lives, the "modern-day Rosa Parks."

In his daily pandemic briefing, Trump defended protesters in states like Kentucky and North Carolina who've congregated in defiance of stay-at-home orders to demand that restrictions on businesses and movement be lifted. "These are people expressing their views," Trump told members of the press. "I see where they are and I see the way they’re working. They seem to be very responsible people to me, but they’ve been treated a little bit rough."

While scattered protesters are defying stay-at-home orders, the measures are broadly popular among Americans. Trump's remarks followed three tweets he published earlier the same day, all-caps missives urging governors to "LIBERATE" Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. Due to her criticism of the federal coronavirus response, Michigan's Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer has become one of Trump's current bétes noires, and the state's rallies, which have found many protesters sporting Trump gear, signal the deep partisan divide over the pandemic.

Moore, who Trump recently named to a bipartisan economic revitalization committee, has lavished the protesters with more effusive and offensive praise. As HuffPost notes, he's made a habit of comparing attendees of anti-stay-at-home rallies—some of whom have been spotted carrying Confederate flags—to Civil Rights hero Rosa Parks.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

LIBERATE MICHIGAN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

"I call these people modern-day Rosa Parks," Moore told The Washington Post. "They are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties."

"It’s interesting to me that the right has become more the Rosa Parks of the world than the left is," he told CBS News.

In case you're wondering what Moore thinks of protest movements that actually do carry the standard of Rosa Parks' efforts to win the right to life and liberty for Americans of all races, he's made it pretty clear. In a 2016 pro-Trump op-ed for Forbes, he dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement as a "George Soros-funded 'activist' [group]."

Treat yourself to 85+ years of history-making journalism.

Subscribe to Esquire Magazine

Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io