Cruise Giant Carnival Works to Manage Deepening Coronavirus Crisis

Mr. Trump’s message tagging Mr. Arison on Friday was not the first time the two have interacted on Twitter. Over the years, Mr. Trump has also praised Mr. Arison’s management of the Miami Heat basketball team, which Mr. Arison took over in 1995.

In 2012, for example, Mr. Trump saluted Mr. Arison after the Heat won the N.B.A. championship. “@MickyArison is a tremendous owner has done wonders for Miami,” he wrote.

The two have also spoken directly with each other on occasion, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Still, Mr. Arison has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, including giving $500,000 to a political action committee supporting Jeb Bush during the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015.

In recent days, Carnival has taken a series of steps to mitigate the business impact of the coronavirus crisis, redeploying ships that were scheduled to sail in Asia to other parts of the world. Princess Cruises has canceled 17 trips and one of it ships, the Sapphire Princess, is redeploying from Shanghai to Australia. Another Carnival brand, Costa Cruises, has canceled 12 voyages in China.

“This is a big issue that’s being handled at the corporate level at Carnival,” said Ross Klein, a sociologist who studies the cruise industry. “They won’t want to redeploy a Princess ship on the same itinerary at the same time as a Holland America ship or another Carnival ship.”

The problems for the cruise operator began early this month, when the Diamond Princess was stranded in waters off the coast of Japan with hundreds of passengers reported to have the virus. At the same time, the Westerdam struggled to find a country willing to let its passengers disembark. Ports in Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand denied the ship entry over concerns about the coronavirus.