Time USA - 06.04.2020

14 Time April 6–13, 2020

double digits. Without providing data

to substantiate the claim, Trump pre-

dicted that could also cause “tremen-

dous death.”

It dIdn’t take long before the eco-

nomic pain became more than Trump

could bear. An aide said the President

was disturbed by what he heard dur-

ing a conference call with thousands of

small- business owners on March 20.

That day he told reporters, “We can’t

have the cure be worse than the prob-

lem.” His own hotels and golf clubs

had suffered steep declines in rev-

enue. “I wouldn’t say you’re thriving

when you decide to close down your

hotels and your businesses,” Trump

said a day later in response to a ques-

tion from TIME. “It’s hurting me, and

it’s hurting Hilton, and it’s hurting

all of the great hotel chains all over

the world.”

As The coronAvirus crisis rAvAged The u.s., PresidenT

Donald Trump weighed whether to lift or lessen social restric-

tions designed to save lives and avoid swamping hospitals

with COVID-19 patients. To slow the spread of the pandemic,

the White House had recommended upending daily life by

working from home; limiting social gatherings to 10 or fe wer

people; and avoiding travel, restaurants and nonessential

shopping, among other measures. But with industry grinding

to a halt and unemployment set to soar, Trump began assert-

ing that the damage to the economy may outstrip the damage

to public health. “We have to go back to work much sooner

than people thought,” Trump said March 24. He announced

April 12, Easter Sunday, as a goal.

Public-health officials warn that relaxing stringent social

distancing that soon could be a lethal mistake. Modeling by

Imperial College London suggests there would be hundreds

of thousands of additional deaths in the U.S. if people are not

kept apart long enough. “I cannot see that all of a sudden,

next week or two weeks from now, it’s

going to be over,” Dr. Anthony Fauci,

director of the National Institute of

Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told

the Today show on March 20.

But public-health experts are not

the only advisers who have Trump’s ear.

The White House is divided. On one

side are Fauci, White House corona-

virus adviser Dr. Deborah Birx and

Centers for Disease Control director

Robert Redfield, who all have been

advocating for strict measures to pre-

vent the number of cases from peaking too quickly and over-

whelming the capacity of the U.S. health care system. This

approach puts health first, backed by the logic that the econ-

omy won’t bounce back until the virus is under control and

Americans feel secure venturing out.

Trump, after downplaying the threat posed by the virus

for weeks, appeared to have embraced the public-health

strategy, instituting the 15-day guidelines on March 16. “His

view is whatever the costs are to save lives, we’l l all bear them

together and then we’ll all rebuild together,” Jared Kushner,

Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, told TIME.

But the President’s top economic advisers, including

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic

Council director Larry Kudlow, are, like Trump, preoccu-

pied with the economic cost of the virus fight. The stock

market has cratered during the pandemic, shedding all the

gains it made during Trump’s presidency. Economists at

Morgan Stanley project U.S. GDP will contract some 30%

over the next three months, driving unemployment up to

△

Trump says

he wants to

ease economic

re strictions

by Easte r

Trump weighs

cost in lives to

help the economy

By Brian Bennett and Tessa Berenson

TheBrief Poli tics

‘We can’t

have the

cure be

worse than

the problem.’

PRESIDENT T RUMP,

say ing h e wants

to l oosen

social-distancing

restrictions s oon

TRUMP: SHUTTERSTOCK; SCHUMER: MICHAEL REYNOLDS—EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

BRMEMO.indd 14 3/25/20 6:07 PM