While Trump didn’t give any definitive plans, he is signaling that he doesn’t want to continue this shut down economy for much longer:
REUTERS – President Donald Trump said on Monday he is considering how to reopen the U.S. economy when a 15-day shutdown ends next week, even as the highly contagious coronavirus is spreading rapidly and hospitals are bracing for a wave of virus-related deaths.
“America will again and soon be open for business,” Trump told a White House news conference. “We are not going to let it turn into a long-lasting financial problem.”
Trump issued guidelines a week ago that he said aimed to slow the spread of the disease over 15 days, including curbing unnecessary travel. In the meantime, economic activity has ground to a halt in some states.
But watching the loss of many jobs and a sharp drop in stock markets and facing a tough re-election battle, Trump has privately expressed worries to aides and allies about the impact of the restrictions on the long-term health of the economy.
Trump told reporters it was possible to resume economic activity in states with what he said were relatively low rates of infection, citing Nebraska, Idaho and Iowa as examples, while continuing to work on the hot zones in other states like New York.
“If it were up to the doctors, they’d say let’s shut down the entire world,” said Trump.
I just want to be clear that Trump didn’t say he would “reopen the U.S. economy when a 15-day shutdown ends next week”. It’s still a day by day, week by week evaluation.
But Trump did make clear that he’s not considering this shut down period lasting for months and months when asked about it by a reporter. And he did suggest that in these three weeks America has learned a lot when it comes to protecting themselves and each other from the spread of the coronavirus.
It remains to be seen exactly what he’ll do, but keep in mind that governors have the ultimate say for most things that happen in the states. And whatever Trump decides, Democrats will be looking to POUNCE on any deaths they can blame on him.