On April 1, 2020, in response to the widespread calamities inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued Executive Order 2020-33. This declared both a state of emergency and a state of disaster across Michigan.

By April 8, 2020, COVID-19 had infected 20,346 Michigan residents and claimed 959 lives. As a result, on April 9, Whitmer reaffirmed and extended the measures set forth in Executive Order 2020-21. Her order stated:

• Michigan residents must stay at home or at their place of residence.
• All public and private gatherings of any number of people occurring among persons not part of a single household were prohibited.
• All individuals who leave their home or place of residence must adhere to social distancing measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including remaining at least six feet from people from outside the individual’s household to the extent feasible under the circumstances.

On April 9, Whitmer extended the anti-Coronavirus measures set forth in her March 10 Executive Order 2020-4. Among these:

• No person or entity shall operate a business or conduct operations that require workers to leave their homes or places of residence unless those workers are necessary to sustain or protect life or to conduct minimum basic operations.
• “Essential workers” were defined as those “necessary to sustain or protect life.”

Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Individuals were allowed to leave their home and travel as necessary to:

• Engage in outdoor physical activity, so long as they stayed at least six feet from people from outside their own household.
• Perform their jobs as critical infrastructure workers after being so designated by their employers.
• Perform necessary government activities.
• Obtain necessary services or supplies for themselves, their family or household members, their pets, and their vehicles.
• Care for minors, dependents, the elderly, persons with disabilities, or other vulnerable persons.
• Visit an individual under the care of a health care facility, residential care facility, or congregate care facility.
• Attend legal proceedings or hearings for essential or emergency purposes as ordered by a court.
• Work or volunteer for businesses or operations that provide food, shelter, and other necessities of life for those who are poor, disabled, or suffering because of the COVID-19 emergency.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged Americans to wear masks and keep at least six feet from their fellows. And most of the nation’s governors issued stay-at-home orders that banned large gatherings—including visits to parks and beaches.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Yet President Donald Trump openly encouraged defiance of those orders. On April 17 he issued a series of tweets to his supporters:

“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”

“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” 

“LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”

All these states had Democratic governors—and had been targeted for Right-wing protests. Large numbers of men and women stood closely together, with most of them not wearing masks. They claimed their “freedoms” were being infringed upon.

Whitmer, who had defied the Republican legislature by extending her stay-at-home order, was denounced as a Nazi, with protesters displaying signs like “Heil Whtmer.” 

Coronavirus

On April 30, a protest at the Michigan Capitol Building featured treasonous Confederate flags and hangman’s nooses. Some signs displayed swastikas. Many of the demonstrators were armed with AK-47s.

That protest was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a group co-founded by a GOP state representative and his wife, who was on the advisory board for an official Trump campaign group called Women for Trump and was also the co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans.

Another event promoter, Greg McNeilly, was a longtime political adviser to the wealthy DeVos family, which included Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her brother, Erik Prince, founder of the notorious Blackwater mercenary group.

On May 1, Trump aimed a tweet at Whitmer: “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”

Also on May 1, demonstrators—many of them heavily armed—again descended on the state capital in Lansing, protesting Whitmer’s extension of her emergency declaration that kept some businesses closed amidst the plague. And, once again, President Trump sided with the protesters.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee tweeted: “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 see it before.”

Trump had two hidden agendas for ending “stay-at-home” orders.

First, from the moment he took office on January 20, 2017, he had claimed credit for a booming economy—even though this was largely the creation of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Now, with thousands of businesses closed because of Coronavirus, that economy was essentially dead. 

Trump knew that Presidents who preside over faltering economies usually don’t win a second term. And Trump not only lusted to win a second term but—as he had repeatedly “joked”—become “President-for-Life.”

Second, Trump was desperate to return to his Nuremberg-style rallies. There he could hurl insults at virtually everyone and bask in the fanatical worship of his followers. These rallies acted as fuel to his campaign.