Trump wants to have America reopened following coronavirus shutdown ‘by Easter’

US President Donald Trump has finally given a date for when he would like America to at least partially reopen after the Covid-19 shutdown: April 12. Otherwise, he argued, the depression would cause far more deaths than the virus.

“I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” Trump said on Tuesday during a Fox News virtual town hall. 

We have to get our country back to work. Our country wants to go back to work.

This follows his remarks on Monday night at the White House press briefing, when he would not name a date, but said he was debating loosening the restrictions in the coming weeks in order to prevent a complete economic collapse of the US.

Anxiety and depression from the economic crisis would cause deaths “in far greater numbers than we’re talking about with regard to the virus,” Trump argued. 

The US is currently on Day 8 of the government’s “15 days to stop the spread” program, with tens of millions of Americans either working from home or furloughed – some without pay – to encourage “social distancing.” 

A $2 trillion financial relief package was proposed by the Senate with the intention of sending cash payments to Americans to make up for income lost due to the shutdown. It was blocked by Senate Democrats on Sunday and again on Monday, however, as the House Democrats sought to push their own proposal, which included a laundry list of policy priorities unrelated to the pandemic. 

Trump said on Tuesday that he would not sign such a bill, pivoting to discussions about reopening at least parts of the country to business instead. Certain locations – such as the states of Washington, New York and California – that are hotbeds of contagion might need to stay locked down longer, the White House has acknowledged.

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