WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, discussing the lifting of lockdowns but also the need to protect people from the coronavirus pandemic, said Sunday that “you can satisfy both.”
The president, fielding questions from Americans in a virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial, acknowledged fears on both sides of the issue. Some people are worried about getting sick; others are reeling from lost jobs and livelihoods.
But while Trump increased his projection for the total U.S. death toll to 80,000 or 90,000 — up by more than 20,000 fatalities from what he had suggested just a few weeks ago — he struck a note of urgency to restart the nation’s economy, declaring “we have to reopen our country.”
“We have to get it back open safely but as quickly as possible,” Trump said.
After more than a month at the White House, Trump returned from a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for the virtual town hall hosted by Fox News Channel.
The president said of his backdrop: “We never had a more beautiful set than this.” He also gestured to the statue to complain about his treatment by the press, saying, “They always said Lincoln — nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse.”
Trump was optimistic about the nation’s ability to rebound from the pandemic.
“It is all working out,” Trump said. “It is horrible to go through, but it is working out.”
Many public health experts believe the nation cannot safely reopen fully until a vaccine is developed. Trump declared Sunday that he believed one could be available by year’s end.
U.S. public health officials have said a vaccine is probably a year to 18 months away. But Dr. Anthony Fauci said in late April that it is conceivable, if a vaccine is soon developed, that it could be in wide distribution as early as January.
Though the administration’s handling of the pandemic, particularly its ability to conduct widespread testing, has come under fierce scrutiny, the president defended the response and said the nation was ready to begin reopening.
“I’ll tell you one thing. We did the right thing and I really believe we saved a million and a half lives,” the president said.
But he also broke with the assessment of his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, saying it was “too soon to say” the federal government had overseen a “success story.”
The president’s aides believe restarting the economy, even with its health risks, is essential to a victory in November and are pushing for him to pivot away from discussions about the pandemic and onto an American comeback story.
To that, he will begin traveling again, with a trip to a mask factory in Arizona planned for Tuesday.
Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, said on CNN’s State of the Union that the administration would “pause” to review the effectiveness of trillions of dollars in economic relief spending before making any decision on whether additional aid is needed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that state and local governments are seeking up to $1 trillion for coronavirus costs,
The Senate planned to reopen Monday, despite the Washington area’s continued status as a virus hot spot and with the region still under stay-at-home orders. The House remains shuttered. The pandemic is forcing big changes at the tradition-bound Supreme Court: The justices will hear arguments, beginning Monday, by telephone for the first time since Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention in 1876.