WASHINGTON – President Trump on Monday ordered the end of the ban on travelers from Europe and Brazil who aimed to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the United States, a measure quickly rejected by advisers to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who said Biden will maintain the ban when he takes office on Wednesday.
In a proclamation issued on Monday night, Trump said that travel restrictions, which apply to non-citizens who try to come to the United States after spending time in these areas, would no longer be necessary on January 26, the date where O for Disease Control and Prevention Centers will begin to require all passengers abroad to present proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding a flight.
Trump wrote that Alex M. Azar II, secretary of health and human services, recommended ending travel restrictions for most of Europe and Brazil, while maintaining restrictions on Iran and China, which Trump said was uncooperative.
“I agree with the secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from Covid-19 and, at the same time, allow travel to resume safely,” said the president in the proclamation.
But Jennifer Psaki, the new White House press secretary for Biden, said the new government would not allow Trump’s guidelines to take effect.
“With the worsening of the pandemic and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is no time to lift restrictions on international travel,” Mrs. Psaki tweeted shortly after the White House published Trump’s proclamation.
“Following the advice of our medical team, the government does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26,” she said. “In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures in relation to international travel, in order to further reduce the spread of Covid-19.”
The proclamation of the lifting of the travel ban was part of a flood of executive orders that Trump issued on Monday that are likely to be rescinded or reversed by Biden.
The president-elect made pandemic control the centerpiece of his new government and strongly criticized how his predecessor handled the worst public health crisis in more than 100 years.
Biden said that the American people must be prepared to endure a “dark winter” in which the virus spreads quickly and creates more disease and death. His advisers recommended that he institute a masking mandate in federal workplaces and for interstate travel in hopes of slowing the increase in the number of infections.
Biden’s advisers made it clear on Monday that easing restrictions now makes no sense.
Trump has long sought to use his willingness to ban travel to slow the spread of the virus, as evidence that he acted quickly in the early days of the pandemic. In fact, medical experts said the travel restrictions from China, which Trump imposed in late January, were riddled with exemptions that allowed tens of thousands of people who were in China to enter the United States in the weeks after the ban.
Trump’s travel restrictions on Europe did not take effect until mid-March, when the virus was well established in the United States. In May, the government banned travel by people who have already been to Brazil.
The announcement of travel restrictions appears to be an effort to help the aviation and hospitality industries, which have been hit hard by the ban.
In it, Mr. Trump said the ban was no longer necessary because unrestricted travel to the United States “is no longer detrimental to the interests of the United States” and added that he considered “in the interest of the United States to terminate the suspension of entry into the United States” United of people who were physically present in those jurisdictions. ”
The president’s attempt to change the pandemic-related policy just two days before leaving office is in line with the unorthodox way in which he led the transition to a new government. Departing presidents normally avoid issuing new executive orders without consulting the incoming president.
But Mr. Trump refused to comply with those standards. For weeks after Biden’s projection won the presidential race, the president refused to acknowledge the defeat and delayed the formal process of transferring power to Biden’s team.
And, more recently, Trump administration officials have been rushing to implement policy changes that could be detrimental to the incoming president.
Trump’s other executive orders on Monday included one that would allow federal agencies to issue new regulations only at the instigation of political appointees.
This order appeared to be intended to allow existing political nominees from the Trump administration to retain control of the new regulations until Biden replaced them with nominees of his own, a process that can sometimes take weeks or months.
Mr. Trump also issued an executive order instructing the federal government not to buy drones “that present unacceptable risks and are manufactured by, or contain software or electronic components critical to foreign adversaries.” This order appeared to target China.
Mr. Trump ordered the creation of a National Garden of American Heroes that would include statues of notable people. The order followed Trump’s complaints over the summer that protesters were disfiguring statues, something he used as a cultural wedge in his lost presidential campaign.
He also issued an executive order that would try to increase protections for prosecutors and another that would aim to protect Americans from “overcriminalization” by regulations.
None of Trump’s executive orders are expected to take effect long after noon on Wednesday. Biden has pledged to work to reverse Trump’s legacy and plans a series of executive orders of his own – many of them reversing Trump’s agenda – in the early hours and days he is at the White House.