Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion and a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University who writes about authoritarianism and propaganda. Entering politics, he had to get used to this form of contact, but still avoided it whenever possible. This makes his refusal to wear protective gear in public, and his enthusiastic shaking of hands for the cameras once the coronavirus hit America, in defiance of experts' counsels to avoid the practice, all the more curious. President Trump toured a Honeywell factory that produces N95 masks, May 5, but declined to wear one publicly. So he alone is exempt from a new White House policy that West Wing employees wear masks.

Source: CNN May 12, 2020 23:14 UTC