President Donald Trump scheduled, then canceled, then re-scheduled a trip to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, The New York Times reports.
Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday night that Trump would travel to the Atlanta laboratory on Friday.
“President Trump is expected to sign the legislation tomorrow as he visits the C.D.C. in Atlanta,” Pence said, referring to an $8 billion funding package passed by Congress this week.
But the president’s schedule, which was released about two hours later, did not include the trip.
A White House official initially claimed that the president did not want to interfere with the CDC’s work as they respond to the coronavirus.
Trump later claimed that it was because of a suspected case of the coronavirus at the CDC itself.
Trump signed the bill at home:
Trump ended up signing the funding bill at the White House, but told reporters he may go after the report of an infection turned out to be negative.
“So I may be going,” he told reporters. “We’re going to see if they can turn it around.”
Trip is back on:
As the president flew to Nashville to visit the site of a deadly tornado, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told reporters that the trip was back on.
“What the president said is true,” Grisham said about the suspected coronavirus case at the CDC. “Thankfully she’s negative, the person.”
Trump is expected to head to Atlanta after Nashville before heading to Florida to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and fundraisers.
