The Trump administration’s ban on non-U.S. residents entering the country if they have been in European Schengen Area countries, which went into effect overnight on Friday, will be extended to include the U.K. and Ireland at midnight on Monday night. The President also says he’s “working with the states” and considering domestic travel restrictions as well.
While the announced reductions in service to Europe by United, by Delta, and by American all skewed towards retaining flights between the U.S. and London. United even planned to keep 3 daily Dublin flights.
Initially the administration’s view was that a blanket ban on travel by Europeans to the U.S. was needed because there aren’t border controls, for the most part, because European countries in the Schengen Area (and so they didn’t believe targeting Italy, or perhaps Germany, Spain and France made sense) the U.K. and Ireland were spared because they’re not participants in the common border that treaty created.
Trump also acknowledged that domestic travel restrictions are under consideration. Two days ago I reported that domestic travel restrictions on California and Washington State were under consideration. There are currently more confirmed coronavirus cases in New York than California.
When asked whether he was “considering other travel restrictions, perhaps domestically,“ President Donald Trump answered, “Specifically from certain areas, yes we are, and we’re working with the states and we’re considering other restrictions.”
Finally, the President say that payouts to airlines, hotels, and cruise lines are coming:
“The airlines industry in particular, no different than after 9/11, has a very unique circumstances — the cruise industry, the hotel industry,” he said. “I would say we’ve got a lot more work to do.”
While bailouts for the airline industry make absolutely no sense, the case for hotels is even weaker since the major chains don’t generally even own the hotel properties that carry their flags. Individual hotel operators will certainly suffer, but there’s no systemic risk to the economy from that. Asking individuals who themselves are likely to be harmed by an economy slowdown to shell out to more prosperous hotel owners is loathesome.
What about a bailout for private golf courses?
At least a bail-out for Trump hotels and his other buildings that might lose tenants?
Hotel owners have generous real estate tax treatment so can live with a few months drop off. Just hope the bill passed yesterday in the House provides income for hotel front line and housekeeping staff who will be the hardest hit. Same in other sectors where the lowest on the wage scales will suffer most.
I was just able to book a non-stop UA flight LHR>DEN for the end of March. So I am assuming some flights will still be operating, it’s just that the only pax allowed on will be legal residents or citizens of the US, correct?
@ Gary — Trump Hotels will surely be one of the top benefactors of this bailout. Unf$%^believable.
@Gene-“Trump” doesn’t own all the Trump hotels. Some are privately owned condos managed by the Trump hotel division. Trump Waikiki is an example.
New York might have more cases than California but I wonder if that is because they are doing more testing? I don’t know, it is just a question. If you don’t test, you won’t find. Some areas seem to be doing much more testing than others.I live in Seattle and we have really ramped up the testing here with the University of Washington gearing up to do thousands per day. Does any one know how it is in other places?
@davidB – what on earth is this “generous real estate tax treatment” that could possibly offset (even partially) the lost room rate, F&B, etc.?
@Gene. Seriously, being President has been really bad for the Trump business. His hotels have gigantic ballrooms where people could book big functions. Each function spent a fortune. For political reasons, all of the galas now booked elsewhere. I guess you did not hear that on Fake News CNN. Your comment is “Unf$%^believable.”
@KimmieA I don’t believe you can assuming anything at this point. This situation changes so rapidly that the end of March may look completely different than the situation today. At this point you need to take things one day at a time.
So far no federal bankruptcy judge has wiped away frequent flyer miles as part of a C11 reorganization. But maybe the third time will be the charm. Be careful what u wish for, Gary!!
Trump still trying to pull the travel ban lever, when it has limited benefit now and the real issue is testing and care. Here’s a sad story which should be an embarassment for the U.S.:
“Beijing’s latest imported infection is a Chinese woman who became ill in her Massachusetts residence. US doctors did not give her a Covid-19 test despite her showing symptoms and making multiple trips to the hospital. The woman attended a meeting of Biogen in late February (source of Boston’s biggest cluster cases to date) and started developing symptoms on Mar 1. On Mar 3 she went to the hospital and was given an antiviral drug but her condition did not improve. She made follow-up visits on Mar 5, 10 and 11, eventually showing symptoms of pneumonia. Nevertheless she was not admitted to the hospital nor was she ever given a coronavirus test.
To get proper treatment, she and her husband and child decided to fly to China on Mar 12, flying from Boston to LA and arriving Beijing on Mar 13. One hour after boarding she complained of feeling sick and she was put in the back of the flight. Upon arrival in Beijing she was admitted directly to the hospital, where she tested positive. She is currently under treatment and her husband and child are in quarantine.
@Gene – if you’ve got nothing else to contribute that is fact based – then shut your F*cking brain-dead liberal mouth up!! Moron!
Every shyster in town will be asking for government money, making less available for those in genuine need. The robber barons love it when someone else will pick up their grossly inflated tab, but they could care less about their own workers, many of them casual and living hand to mouth. No guessing who’d be at the head of the queue, in the form of the repulsive sons as proxies.
Manufactured, orchestrated and contrived. Hollywood couldn’t have produced a more implausible script.
But…. one has yet to hear how this works.
Long-suffering wife has ticket to LHR later this month returning two weeks later.
Can she go? If she goes, can she get back? Both unknown. Crickets from the airline so far, but in all fairness, they probably have no clue either.
Gary – there are some serious MAGA trolls on this site (somewhat receded in the last week), but at least they have some sort of argument that they (feebly) try to make make.
This Emmanuel Ruiz clown just plain insults and curses out…might want to look into him. Have to have at least a bit of decorum here.
Oh, and the idea that the current occupant of the WH’s role is somehow “bad for the business” is beyond intellectually dishonest…initiation fees doubling at his courses, DC hotel having phantom blocks of rooms booked by foreign governments, no actual divestment of his businesses, etc.
@Emmanuel Ruiz +1
James N, almost as unbelievable as Starbucks reopening 90% of their stores in China. Of course, a total fabrication by the media….
Your third paragraph is so poorly written I can barely make sense of it. Please reread and adjust.
@UA-NYC (aka Manhattan Waterbug).
–You are always posting Anti-Trump voter posts daring Trump supporters (about half the country) to call you out. That is called trolling.
–You were bragging in a couple of posts that Trump supporters have stood down. That is also called trolling.
–You rarely make any intelligent comment about anything. Do you even travel?
–Trump has lost billions in revenue by being President notwithstanding a few dignitaries that book the one Trump hotel in Washington DC. Functions with multi-million in revenues will not book in his hotels and golf courses, many of buildings have taken down the Trump affiliation and refused to pay affiliate fees.
–Moreover, liberals tend to equate revenues as profit. Of course, revenues-costs=profits, but they do not seem to know that. (Single cell amoebas). I guess Waterbugs also do not know the difference.
–Liberals brag about how they are hurting Trump in this regards when they are not hypocritically going on about the embroilment clause.
–According to Money’s (3/6/18) article: “The 71-year-old president, who became the first billionaire to serve in the Oval Office when he was inaugurated in January 2017, has a net worth of $3.1 billion, according to new estimates from Forbes. Trump dropped more than 200 spots from 544th richest in 2017 to 766th in 2018 on the magazine’s annual Billionaires List as a result.” Moreover, “Forbes attributed the president’s decline in net worth throughout 2017 to a struggling retail real estate market and Trump’s polarizing brand.” Like no kidding.
–All you have to do is stop ripping into Trump and his supporters, and the conversation would be civil. In other words, stop being a troll, then nobody rips you. Sometimes I get carried away with colorful language because I think it is funny, understand Mr. Waterbug.
Go back to your slime hole Mr. Waterbug. [Or alternatively, if you want to stop Trolling Trump supporters and post travel content, then nice to meet you Mr. UA-NYC. Not likely. I believe anyone, even Waterbugs, can be redeemed the deep pits of hell. Although, I am agnostic and not sure the deep pits of hell actually exist. I do believe in redemption.]
LOL: I personally expect the Manhattan Waterbug to go back to calling me a racist because he judges things by the color of their skin, not the content of their character (which is a racist construct). When people like the Waterbug cannot win the argument, because they do not have any facts, they resort to ad hominem attacks.
Of course we are expected to take a certain Anti American fascist cowards word that Trumps hotels aren’t making money, even though there’s enough evidence that Trump has been fleecing the taxpayer to benefit his hotels
People may wonder why I call 747always the anti-American Socialist WIMP. Out of the clear blue sky, 747always starts ranting at me about the 2nd Amendment. Not sure why
–So I asked him to tell me things that he like about the USA. Instead of answering me, he went on a rant about Trump.
–I said that is not an answer and since you cannot tell me anything you like about USA, I have to assume you are anti-American. Prove me otherwise. That is where the anti-American comes from.
–At which point, he went nuts and said angrily “grow a pair and admit that you are a racist follower of a dictator.” In today’s world, such a gender related insult cannot even be close to politically correct. However, since he was questioning my manhood, I insulted back calling him a “WIMP”.
–Since then, he has been spouting anti-free markets comments, that is how he got the name Socialist, because I think he is, until he refutes it.
747always, the Anti-American Socialist Wimp’s argumentation skills are beyond pathetic. I feel like I am dealing with a 5 year old.
(1) He goes on an anti-Trump rant and screams (figuratively of course) admit that is true. Of course my reaction is: what are you talking about, your rant is not true.
(2) Every time I say something about him, he says you have just admitted the same thing about yourself. When someone is 5 years old, they say “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, What You Say Is What You Are Period.” However, most people develop more advanced cognitive skills as they get older.
So anyway, I do not take 747always, the Anti-American Socialist WIMP seriously. I theorize that 747, the Anti-American Socialist WIMP (I am going to have to shorten that) is part of the cancel culture. He is trying to drive any support the current administration out of the public square by ranting at them. However, Wimpy 747always, the Anti-American (shorter) has not developed his cognitive skills and just is not very good at it.
@747always. You sound stressed. As a former Californian, my suggestion is mellow out, light up light up err big one and relax. Before you know it (I think 5 years, but you might have a different opinion), the Trump Presidency will be over. Hakuna matata is actually a pretty good advice to avoid health damaging stress.
@747always – of course, when Trump has a meeting in Ireland, instead of staying in a local hotel, he stays 100 miles across the country at his own property, so he can further enrich himself (all those Secret Service people and associated staff have to stay somewhere). And his two numbskull offspring are still out there globally trading off the family name.
But clowns like OJS just swear he is doing worse off – makes all the logical sense in the world. OJS, you DO know he also has been well documented as lying and over-stating the real amount of his net worth (look up some of the articles about golf club valuation). Facts are tough for the remaining wasteland of Republicans I know…
Countries are now waking up to the fact that Americans pose a virus threat (contrary to Trump calling the virus a foreign virus and need to prevent people from entering the U.S.). Hong Kong’s virus cases are mostly imports from other countries (including U.S.) so they just announced that visitors from UNITED STATES, Eqypt, UK and Ireland require mandatory 14 day quarantine due to risk profile
@UA-NYC (aka Manhattan Waterbug). I think you are talking about stops in Scotland before flying back to the USA. There was a contract to stop at that airport years before Trump was President. It a refueling station. Previous Presidents, including Obama stopped at the same airport to fuel. The secret service stayed at the hotel with the cheapest rates, which turned out to be the Trump hotel. Maybe you think they pay more to avoid the Trump hotel. I guess CNN did not tell you that. The weird thing is, the left wing agenda reporters at the Washington Post and the New York Times were two lazy to check up on the contract.
It was Pence, September 2019, who stayed 180 miles away, instead of staying in, oh I don’t know, Dublin where the Irish PM was. Guess who benefited? Trump.
Hey even FauxNews covered it OJS – maybe you are a OAN person these days, since you may still be bitter about Roger Ailes “being done wrong”.
@Manhattan Waterbug. You bore me.
@OJS – good, you and all your fellow Trump Sycophants can just go back underground at this point and let the doctors & scientists lead the way on getting us out of this mess. Because your Dear Leader clearly isn’t the one to.
Good try, Other Just Saying, but you are the troll, not the trollee…
Sure, Forbes estimate of Trump’s wealth went down during his presidency- but mainly due to revaluation of his penthouse (turns out he doesn’t really own it) and other lies he told before.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2019/08/14/no-trump-is-not-losing-3-to-5-billion-from-presidency/#3348d03d4a2d
As for who started the partisan attacks? There’s like 20 years of Trump tweets as a documentary record- Obama’s born in Kenya / Any president who presides over a 1,000 point decline in the Dow should be shot into the sun / Any president who spends time golfing during a national crisis should be shot/ etc.
None of these are ad hominem attacks- in fact, they are your own candidates words. But lets finish with an ad hominem attack- Trump is a spineless moron (words of his own Secretary of State) who doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions (see latest speech on why he’s not responsible for the lack of testing). He shouldn’t be dog catcher, let alone the President, and after the coronavirus debacle, he’ll be looking for work in December. Maybe he can make a guest appearance on the Masked Singer? Actually, I doubt they will want him…
@Cynnils- why exactly do you believe that Starbucks reopening in China is a lie? The CEO of Starbucks said so- https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/a-message-from-starbucks-ceo-china-partners-make-us-proud-as-stores-reopen/.
When coronavirus first appeared Trump said it was a Democrat hoax, and his supporters believed him. For weeks nothing was done to prepare and protect the American people from the coming pandemic. Now Trump is at a loss because coronavirus is impervious to lies and bullying, his tried and true tactics for any adversary. No matter how much he requires subordinates to to tell everyone what a great job he is doing, the virus marches on. And the truth is no one knows now if we are doing a good job or not!
What our dear leader takes credit for today will be “not my responsibility” tomorrow when things get worse. This administration and his brainwashed supporters views anything other than praise and unquestioning acceptance as partisanship.
I just got back from Thailand via Hong Kong. There was no quarantine for Americans. All who got through immigration received a temperature check. I believe there is more stringent health screening for those coming from some countries.
Life in Bangkok seems unaffected. When I checked in the hotel had no screening but during the stay started doing a temperature screen for all guests upon check in. Connecting in Hong Kong there was a detailed health questionnaire required for passengers entering Hong Kong. Connecting passengers had individual temperature checks with a small radar gun like device not the walk by temp screening in the past. As of a day ago Thailand was reporting less than 100 cases. Hong Kong had less than 300. Both have borders and extensive trade with China.
Coronavirus is a global pandemic. The response must be global. There should be a set of best practices and shared ideas and plans not unilateral action. We must have LEADERSHIP and truth not lies and avoidance of responsibility!
@John. I wonder if we crossed paths in Bangkok.
You are otherwise quite smart. However, I suggest you stop watching CNN.
Was at MIA yesterday flying in from London. They treated that just like all other European flights. Apparently they didn’t read the memo clearly and went passenger by passenger screening the London flight. Luckily that was the only flight arriving at that time and it took 45 minutes to an hour to get through that portion.