WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump will visit a Lehigh Valley medical equipment distributor Thursday, where he's expected to talk about coronavirus testing and the equipment needed to combat the public health crisis, a White House spokesman confirmed exclusively to The Morning Call on Monday evening.
Trump is headed to an Upper Macungie Township distribution center for Owens and Minor Inc., a Virginia company that has sent N95 masks, surgical gowns and gloves to hospitals and surgery centers across the country.
The company has been part of the federal government's Project Airbridge, an effort to bring personal protective equipment to the U.S. from overseas. It also was one of five companies tapped by the Department of Health and Human Services to supply approximately 600 million N95 respirator masks over the next 18 months, according to the firm's website.
During his visit Thursday, Trump will tour the distribution center and give remarks, according to the White House. He's expected to talk about efforts to replenish and improve the Strategic National Stockpile, which is intended to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies and disasters, and was understocked for the current pandemic.
The visit will be Trump's first to the Lehigh Valley, and his 18th to Pennsylvania since taking office in 2017. It's also his second trip to a critical electoral battleground in two weeks, following a trip to Arizona to visit a mask factory.
News of Trump's upcoming visit came hours after the president had referenced Pennsylvania in a social media post Monday morning, in which he criticized Democrats as moving too slowly on reopening the economy.
"The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails," Trump tweeted. "The Democrats are moving slowly, all over the USA, for political purposes."
Asked Monday morning about Trump's tweet, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf questioned how to move quickly but also safely, saying he's attempting to reopen the state in a "measured" way.
"I don't know how you stay safe and move quickly," Wolf said, adding that "the irresponsible thing to do ... is to just willy-nilly go off and pretend that we can wave a magic wand and go back into business and suspend the reality to this virus that's surrounding us."
In recent days, the Trump administration has been working to contain the spread of the virus in the White House, with one of Trump's personal valets and Vice President Mike Pence's spokeswoman testing positive and three members of the administration's coronavirus task force in self-quarantine. On Monday, the White House directed all staffers to wear masks.
The Washington Post reported late Monday, citing two people familiar with the decision, that a visit by Trump last Friday to the Braskem America factory in Marcus Hook, Delaware County, was scuttled after factory officials grew concerned about the safety of the workers and the plant's ability to produce special material for masks and other medical gear.
The Braskem factory gained national attention when workers lived at the factory for 28 days to ensure they were healthy and production was not contaminated.
