US: Trump tours Maine medical swab manufacturing plant

President Donald Trump travelled to rural Guilford, Maine Friday, the home to Puritan Medical Products, one of only two major companies producing a special type of swab needed to ramp up coronavirus testing.

Ahead of Trump’s arrival, supporters heavily outnumbered anti-Trump demonstrators. But there were numerous other anti-Trump demonstrations planned in the state, and some organizers had dissuaded protesters from coming to Guilford.

The Trump administration is providing $75.5 million through the Defense Production Act for Puritan to double production to 40 million swabs a month, and the company plans to open a second production site by July 1. More than 350 workers in Guilford have been working long hours since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Normally, Friday's events would make for a friendly visit for Trump in a congressional district that awarded him an electoral vote in the 2016 election.

But it comes against the backdrop of demonstrations across Maine and the nation following Floyd’s death after being detained by police. Video showed a white police officer pressing his knee on the neck of Floyd, who was black, while Floyd was handcuffed on the ground and pleading that he couldn't breathe.

In Maine, the nation’s whitest state, there have been multiple days of demonstrations. Earlier in the week, more than 1,000 people gathered in Portland, stopping traffic, setting trash cans afire and pelting police with objects. More than 30 people have been arrested.