Coronavirus: Donald Trump urges supporters to ‘liberate’ states from lockdown

President Donald Trump on Friday encouraged an anti-lockdown group that is scheduled to protest in Minnesota against stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of coronavirus and he appeared to back such efforts in other states, arguing that “elements” of some state regulations were “just too tough.”

“I think elements of what they’ve done are just too tough,” Trump said at the daily White House press briefing Friday evening when asked about a tweet — “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” — that he posted earlier in the day.

Trump told reporters that he felt “very comfortable” with his tweet, adding that “these are people expressing their views” and “they seem to be very responsible people to me, you know, they’ve been treated a little bit rough.”

“What they’ve done is very powerful,” he said. “You can get the same result by doing a little bit less.”

“If we see something happening bad that we think is wrong, we’re going to come down strong on them,” Trump said about states. “The federal government has a lot to say.”

But some governors made it clear they are not ready to break out the roadmap, with some saying they badly need help from Washington in ramping up testing for the virus.

Cuomo, whose state is the most lethal hot spot in the nation and is still seeing over 600 deaths a day, accused the federal government of “passing the buck without passing the bucks.”