Trump plays golf ahead of Mount Rushmore celebration even as coronavirus cases hit new record

Donald Trump headed for the golf course on Friday, starting the long Independence Day weekend hitting the links even after the country the day before set a single-day record for new coronavirus cases.

There were more than 55,000 new cases recorded on Thursday nationwide. That marked the sixth time in nine days the United States set a new record for confirmed cases. What's more, eight states set single-day records on Thursday. There have been 2.7m confirmed cases in the United States, with at least 129,000 deaths, according to The Johns Hopkins University.

Mr Trump did not opt to remain at the White House on Friday morning to huddle with his coronavirus task force or talk to governors about local efforts to stop the spread in many Sun Belt states and California.

A reporter in the day's pool, the group of journalists that chronicle a president's movements and remarks, sent a dispatch that Mr Trump's motorcade ferried him to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, 26.5 miles northwest of the White House.

After the roughly 40-minute drive, the pool reporter noted a sign along the way that read "Trump is a Traitor." But one man gave the motorcade a thumbs up on a hot and humid day in Washington.

Mr Trump earlier this week again said the coronavirus will soon, somehow, "disappear." He did not, however, say how it might do so, or offer any scientific or medical evidence to support his prediction.

"I think we're going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that's going to sort of just disappear," Mr Trump told Fox Business Network before adding this qualifier: "I hope."

Fox Business White House reporter Blake Burman asked the president if he still thinks, as he has said for months, that the virus will merely disappear, the president said: "I do."

The president then appeared to suggest his prediction was linked to efforts to develop a vaccine.

"I think we're going to have a vaccine very soon too," Mr Trump.

But his top infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci, told Congress this week he is betting a vaccine will be deployed sometime next year – after Election Day.

The president is slated to depart the White House around 5 p.m. for South Dakota, where he is holding a 4 July event with remarks and fireworks at Mount Rushmore. Attendees will not be required to wear masks or social distance.

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