Trump wants Americans “back to work” by Easter. His medical advisers have pushed back – By Miriam Elder (Buzzfeed) / March 24 2020
“I gave it two weeks.” Trump is running out of patience with his advisers’ focus on saving lives amid the coronavirus outbreak.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he hoped to have the country “back to work” by Easter, setting the most concrete deadline yet as his attention turns from stopping the onslaught of the coronavirus and toward restarting the ailing US economy.
He received immediate pushback and hedging from some of his advisers — including Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and even Vice President Mike Pence — after making the statement during a Fox News town hall.
“I’d love to have it open by Easter,” Trump said. “I would love to have that. It’s such an important day for other reasons, but I’ll make it an important day for this too. I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Easter falls on April 12 this year.
The deadline does not have any medical significance for slowing the spread of the coronavirus, and Trump did not immediately give any reason for the date. It also conflicts with what New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo suggested just hours earlier could be the peak for the outbreak in his state, which Pence has called the “epicenter” for the virus outbreak in the United States.
In an interview on Fox News later Tuesday afternoon, Trump said, Easter “is a very special day for me,” and that it would be “great to have all of the churches full.”
Continue to article: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamelder/coronavirus-trump-easter-covid-19-economy
