President Trump visited a Ford factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Thursday and, despite a request from Ford's chairman and Michigan's attorney general, he declined to wear a face mask for most of his tour. But he did wear one for at least a few minutes. "I wore one in this back area, but I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it," Trump told reporters, showing off the mask he said he'd worn. "I think I look better in the mask," he added later. Well, now you can judge for yourself.
With smartphone cameras everywhere, it was bound to happen eventually.
It isn't entirely clear why Trump refuses to wear a mask in front of the cameras, but his aides and advisers have told reporters the president thinks he looks ridiculous in a mask and believes it contradicts his messaging about the safety of reopening stores and other public places. A study from Hong Kong released Sunday found that wearing masks can lower the rate of transmitting the coronavirus through its primary mechanism, airborne saliva, by as much as 75 percent.