Trump’s plan to reopen the U.S. by Easter came after a call with desperate business leaders and appeals to another key group.
Advisers say target offers hope; health experts alarmed
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s “beautiful” idea to reopen the U.S. economy by Easter and pack church pews that day was dreamed up during a conference call among business leaders desperate to get the country back up and running.
But his target date for easing coronavirus restrictions is another outstretched hand to a group he has long courted: evangelical Christians.
Cooped up at the White House and watching the stock market tumble, Trump had already been eager to ease federal guidelines aimed at halting the spread of a virus that has infected more than 65,000 Americans when about a dozen business leaders convened a conference call Sunday.
“There was a concern — not unanimity, but consensus — that you had to have a reopening of the economy at some point soon,” said Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and informal Trump adviser. On the call, Moore said, he argued in favor of setting a specific date as a goal by which point the economy could gradually begin to be reopened.
“One of the things we were saying was that this would instill some confidence in people, that there would be some kind of light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
While many wanted to see that date set even sooner than Easter on April 12, “it’s something that’s coming up that would be obviously a mark on someone’s calendar,” Moore said. “I had made this point that we should call this economic resurrection day.”
Though it’s unclear exactly when the idea made its way to Trump or whether others in his orbit had pegged the date as well — one official said they had heard the idea mentioned multiple times around the Oval Office — by late Sunday, Trump was publicly siding with such thinking, tweeting: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”
On Monday, he said he was considering easing his administration’s recommendations that Americans largely stay home within weeks, not months.
And on Tuesday, he formally endorsed the idea of an Easter goalpost during a Fox News Channel virtual town hall.
“Easter’s a very special day for me. Wouldn’t it be great to have all of the churches full?” Trump later told Fox. “You’ll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time.”
The idea drew alarm from many public health experts, who noted that even New York — thought to be several weeks ahead of the rest of the nation — has yet to reach its peak in infections.
Unless Americans continue to isolate themselves for weeks, those experts warn, a virus that has already killed more than 900 people in the U.S., according to a running tally by Johns
Hopkins University, and will continue to spread across the nation, overwhelming hospitals already starved of needed supplies.
Nearly 370 people in the U.S. have recovered.
But for conservative evangelicals who remain among Trump’s most ardent supporters, the president’s choice of the holiest date on their faith’s calendar was meaningful even as a purely aspirational goal to reboot American life.
The timeline “injected hope into an indefinite ordeal,” said Johnnie Moore, an evangelical adviser to the administration. “And it was very clear in hearing him speak that not only is there an end to this, but when we do win it, we’re going to have a celebration, and that celebration will partly include gratitude to God.”
Ralph Reed, a veteran GOP activist and Trump ally who chairs the Faith & Freedom Coalition, cautioned that restrictions shouldn’t be eased “if it’s a bad idea from a public health standpoint,” but also welcomed the Easter target.
“I will be encouraging the White House, again within the parameters of what makes sense from a public health standpoint, to do everything we can to make that date,” Reed said, “because I think it would be symbolic, it would be significant, it would be inspirational.”
To that end, the White House has been discussing the mechanics of a rollback aimed at getting Americans back to work if they don’t live in current virus hot spots.
Among the ideas under discussion: advising that those who are most at risk for severe complications — including seniors — continue to isolate themselves, while younger people go back to work.
Even if Trump were to ease federal guidelines, states across the country, from California to New York, have already put in place a patchwork of rules to try to halt the virus’ spread.
The administration has so far said it has no plans to try to overrule local restrictions.