‘I’m not happy about Brian Kemp!’ Trump lashes out at Republican governor hours before Georgia due to start reopening

President said he takes exception to the reopening of spas

Donald Trump has turned on a Republican governor who is incrementally relaxing his state’s coronavirus lockdown – reversing his support both for the governor in question and for opening up the US as soon as possible.

Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, was one of the last governors in the US to issue a stay-at-home order, waiting till 3 April to do so. He has now been condemned by both public health experts and business owners in his own state for allowing more non-essential commercial activity than can be deemed safe; undeterred by the criticism of his decision, his plans are going ahead.

Mr Kemp has also attracted criticism for saying he only recently learned the virus could be transmitted by asymptomatic people, even though experts have been saying so for months.

While Mr Trump was has long been an advocate of reopening the economy as soon as possible – recently tweeting that Americans should “liberate” their states – he has apparently started to accept that stay-at-home orders should be relaxed carefully.

This includes a rejection of Mr Kemp, with the president making a sharp about-face from a previous briefing in which he described the Georgia governor as “a capable man who knows what he’s doing”.

Asked why his thinking had changed, Trump opined that it was Mr Kemp’s plan to open up spas that really stuck in his craw.

“I didn’t like to see spas at this early stage, and nor did the doctors – is that a correct statement, Deborah? I didn’t like to see spas opening, frankly. I didn’t like to see a lot of things happening. And I wasn’t happy with it. I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp. I wasn’t at all happy.”

Elaborating further, Mr Trump said that “I could’ve done something about it if I wanted to, but I’m saying let the governors do it – but I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp. Spas, beauty parlours, tattoo parlours ... I want them to open, and I want them to open as soon as possible, and I want the state to open. But I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp, I will tell you that right now.”

In previous remarks, Mr Trump has said that the president has “total” authority to decide whether the states can open or close their economies, a claim fiercely rejected across the ideological spectrum. He seemed to base his description of Mr Kemp’s decision on the same principle, describing it as something he permitted rather than the governor’s prerogative.

“You know what happened? I said ‘You make your own decision.’ I told him that. I said: ‘You’re not in the guidelines, but I’m letting you make your own decision. But I want people to be safe, and I want the people in Georgia to be safe.

“And I don’t want this thing to flare up because you’re deciding to do something that is not in the guidelines. And I went to Deborah and Dr Fauci and other people, and they weren’t thrilled about it. And I could’ve stopped them, but I decided and we all agreed they gotta watch it closely.”

“I told him very distinctly – Mike [Pence] was there – I said: ‘You do what you think is best.’ But if you ask me am I happy about it, I’m not happy about it and I’m not happy about Brian Kemp.”

Other governors besides Kemp have moved towards reopening, including Bill Lee of neighbouring Tennessee. The lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, has become perhaps the US’s most notorious advocate for relaxing or ending social distancing in favour of economic health, recently saying “there are more important things than living”.