President Donald Trump is expected to visit Puritan Medical Products in Maine on Friday.
President Trump will be visiting one of the facilities, which manufactures medical testing swabs. It’s not yet clear which facility the president will visit.
The visit comes despite some pushback from Governor Janet Mills, who raised concerns in a call between the president and the nation’s governors on Monday over the visit potentially causing a security issue.
The Daily Beast released a partial transcript of that phone call:
“Mr. President I am very concerned quite frankly that … we understand you might be coming to the state of Maine later this week,” Mills was quoted as saying. “I am very concerned that your presence may cause security problems for our state.”
According to the transcript, Trump replied, “We have a tremendous crowd of people showing up as you know. And I think most of them are very favorable. They like their president.”
Speaking at a news conference Monday evening, Mills went into detail about that call. She called on the president to do away with what she calls “divisive rhetoric” in the wake of protests erupting around the country, and says she fears that his words could create unrest in Maine when he visits.
Trump called many of the governors “weak” and encouraged them to use force against violent protestors.
Mills, a former prosecutor and attorney general for the state, says she was told by the president’s administration that violent protesters should be prosecuted under federal law. That after Trump declared Antifa a terrorist organization. Mills says she was not told which federal law those protestors would be prosecuted under.
She also said that she asked to see intel about those protesters alleged links to other groups like Occupy Wall Street, but that intel was not provided to her.
Puritan, which is based in Guilford, used $75.5 million under the Federal Defense Production Act to create coronavirus testing swabs.