“I would love to have the country opened up
and just raring to go by Easter,” he said during
a Fox News virtual town hall. Easter is just over
two weeks away — Apr. 12.
“Wouldn’t it be great to have all of the
churches full?” Trump said in a subsequent
interview. “You’ll have packed churches all
over our country.”
And as scientists warned the worst is yet to
come — with hospital systems tested beyond
their capacity and health workers sidelined
by exposure — Trump addressed the nation,
saying he was beginning “to see the light at the
end of the tunnel.”
Trump’s comments came even as White House
officials urged people who have left New York
City amid the outbreak to self-quarantine for
14 days after their departure, owing to the
widespread rate of infection in the metro area.
It also follows on the president encouraging
lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass a roughly
$2 trillion stimulus package — estimated at
roughly $6 trillion once the Federal Reserve’s
actions are included — to ease the financial
pain for Americans and hard-hit industries.
Health experts have made clear that unless
Americans continue to dramatically limit
social interaction — staying home from work
and isolating themselves — the number of
infections will overwhelm the health care
system, as it has in parts of Italy, leading to
many more deaths. While the worst outbreaks
are concentrated in certain parts of the country,
such as New York, experts warn that the highly
infectious disease is certain to spread.