Wheeler rebukes Trump's call to end Minnesota lockdown
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Blake Wheeler has one word for Donald Trump.
On Saturday, the Winnipeg Jets captain responded directly to the U.S. president's plea to end Minnesota's lockdown on Twitter.
No
— Blake Wheeler (@BiggieFunke) April 18, 2020
Wheeler's ties to Minnesota run deep. He was born in Plymouth and grew up in nearby Robbinsdale, both of which aren't far from Minneapolis. The 33-year-old also spent three years at the University of Minnesota before beginning his NHL career.
Trump, who's repeatedly expressed his goal of reopening the U.S. economy in spite of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, fired off a series of "liberate" tweets Friday. They were an apparent attempt to put pressure on Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia legislators to lift stay-at-home orders put in place to slow the spread of the virus.
On Friday afternoon, following the president's tweets, a few hundred protesters assembled outside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's house in St. Paul, according to NBC News. One sign reportedly read, "If ballots don't free us, bullets will."
The gathering followed similar ones in New York, Michigan, and Ohio, among others.