preferred to have mitigation measures be controlled by individual states because it was compatible with the constitution, trump claimed at the april 13 briefing that he had the ultimate authority to order the end of restrictions, saying "the president of the united states has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. the president of the united states calls the shots." three days later, trump backtracked on his assertions, and assured governors that they would be able to "call own shots." on april 17, trump made posts on twitter reading "liberate michigan", "liberate virginia" and "liberate minnesota", in support of protests over responses and stay-at-home orders issued by the democratic governors of these states (including the lansing, michigan protest). the posts were made after fox news's america's newsroom aired a segment that covered these protests, implicating that he was reacting to it in real-time (as he has with other fox news programs, such as fox & friends). later that day, a reporter asked whether he thought those states should end their stay-at-home orders. he replied, "no, but elements of what they've done are too much." when trump was asked if he was worried that protester gatherings would inadvertently spread the coronavirus, he replied that the protesters "seem to be very responsible people". a day earlier, trump commented: "they seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion is the same as just about all of the governors. they all want to open. nobody wants to stay shut, but they want to open safely. so do i." on april 17, the white house released their "opening up america again" blueprint. later on may 13, the associated press reported that the cdc had also written guidance on lifting restrictions, which was not released to the public. the difference between the cdc and the white house's recommendations was that the cdc's recommendations were more specific and more restrictive than the white house's recommendations. the white house plan recommended that "non-essential travel can resume" after 28 continuous days of decreasing covid-19 cases, whereas the cdc plan stated that resuming non-essential travel will only be under "consideration" after 42 consecutive days of decreasing covid-19 cases. the cdc plan recognizes that covid-19 cases will likely surge when restrictions are lifted, and local authorities would need to stringently monitor their communities, but the white house plan does not. the white house plan offers non-specific recommendations to protect "workers in critical industries" and "the most vulnerable", whereas the cdc plan recommends using demographic information to find out where covid-19 cases are more likely to increase faster. on april 20, fauci warned that the protests against stay-at-home orders may "backfire" if a spike in cases follows an early lifting of restrictions. fauci argued against the protests, stating that "unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not gonna happen." on may 1, trump described michigan protesters against stay-at-home orders as "very good people" who are "angry". some of those protesters had brought rifles into the michigan state capitol. trump called on michigan governor gretchen whitmer to "make a deal" with the protesters. on may 3, white house coronavirus task force coordinator deborah birx stated that it was "devastatingly worrisome" that some protesters across the u.s. were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. she warned that these protesters may "go home and they infect their grandmother or grandfather who has a comorbid condition". the cdc developed more than 60 pages of step-by-step guidelines for reopening businesses, including "decision trees" to help business owners decide whether it was safe to reopen. it sought white house approval to publish the guidelines, anticipating a publication date of may 1. the document was called the "guidance for implementing the opening up america again framework." however, the white house office of information and regulatory affairs (oira) told the cdc they could not publish it. the white house asked for the document to state more directly "when" to reopen and "how" to safeguard health; they did not want the decision trees that addressed whether to reopen. part of the cdc's document (17 pages) was leaked on may 7, and the rest was identified on may 8. after anthony fauci warned against reopening schools too fast, president trump responded on may 13 that he was "surprised" by fauci's comments, stating that "it's not an acceptable answer". he accused fauci of wanting "to play all sides of the equation". trump declared that "schools are going to be open", while "the only thing that would be acceptable" is to delay the return of older educators for a few weeks. trump declared that students were "in great shape" and the statistics for them regarding covid-19 were "pretty amazing". trump acknowledged that "something" may happen to students, but asserted that: "you can be driving to school and some bad things can happen too." on july 8, trump declared an intent to pressure state governors into ensuring that schools are open to in-person classes for the next semester and "cut off funding" if they don't, alleging that democrats wanted to keep schools closed for political reasons going into the election. trump also criticized the cdc's guidelines for schools as being "very tough and expensive". during the day's briefing, mike pence subsequently announced that the cdc would " a new set of tools, five different documents that will be giving even more clarity on the guidance going forward." the next day, cdc director robert redfield stated that these documents would be supplemental to its existing guidelines, denying accusations that they were to be modified outright due to pressure from trump. in august, scott atlas, a neuroradiologist from the hoover institution, became a white house pandemic adviser. he supported lifting restrictions and letting the coronavirus spread, while continuing to protect some vulnerable people (for example, those who live in nursing homes), so that most of the population would develop "herd immunity." mask wearing