Last Updated on March 24, 2020
During a televised virtual town hall on Fox News, President Donald Trump made clear that he expects for the country to be up and running again by Easter, April 12, after what he and Vice President Mike Pence consider a successful “15 Days to Slow the Spread” campaign.
The town hall, which included President Trump, Pence, Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, featured questions from the media as well as recorded questions from the public, curated by Fox News.
In the town hall, President Trump made clear that he expects the country to open up soon, after social distancing and several quarantines have crippled the nation’s economy, with the Dow Jones alone seeing its worst losses in recent memory.
“I’d love to have it open by Easter,” said President Trump. “I’d love to have it open by Easter.”
The president continued, “I’ll tell you right now, I would love to have that. It’s such an important day for other reasons, but I’ll make it an important day for this too.”
“I would love to have the country opened up and just rearing to go by Easter,” added President Trump.
President @realDonaldTrump: I would love to have the country opened up and raring to go by Easter pic.twitter.com/mysSVSFq4M
— Wojciech Pawelczyk (@WojPawelczyk) March 24, 2020
During his appearance on Fox News and during yesterday’s televised press conference, President Trump and Pence both noted the extreme success of the “15 Days to Slow the Spread initiative,” which saw millions of Americans working from home, as well as restaurants, bars, gyms, and other mainstays of American life close.
Still, stressing the importance of social distancing for the remainder of the 15 days, the Surgeon General noted that President Trump’s decisions are impacted by the concerns and data provided to him by the doctors surrounding him, and this may change depending on the course of the pandemic.
However, President Trump repeatedly stressed throughout the town hall that he wants Americans to be able to return to their normal lives as soon as possible.
