Even Business Execs Think Trump Is Nuts to Reopen the Country Without Mass Testing

Earlier this week, it looked as though Donald Trump, in all his infinite wisdom, had put his daughter and son-in-law on the council advising the White House on when to “reopen” the country. Given the president’s long history of putting the dynamic duo in charge of matters they have literally no business being anywhere near, and his claim that Ivanka has single-handedly created 15 million jobs, the development appeared unsurprising if not completely absurd. Luckily, it seems that someone with some ounce of sense intervened, and told Trump he should probably speak to a few actual business executives, if not real-life economists. And what do you know? Those people have apparently told him it would be absurd to get back to regular life before the government has hugely increased testing capabilities.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in Trump’s first task force meeting of business and political leaders, executives told the president that the administration must dramatically increase the availability of coronavirus testing “before the public would be confident enough to return to work, eat at restaurants or shop in retail establishments,” according to sources familiar with the call.

No potential dates for easing coronavirus restrictions were discussed, and no follow-up meeting was scheduled. The task force, known formally as the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, includes more than 200 business and political leaders, who have been divided into smaller groups based on their industry. The people involved in the first call, which included executives from banking, financial services, food and beverage, hospitality, and retail industries, described current testing levels in the U.S. as inadequate to effectively reopen the economy.

Some executives suggested that they were attempting to secure their own virus testing kits for employees and possibly customers as well, the people said.

Asked about comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the U.S. wasn’t ready to reopen due to a lack of testing and virus tracing, Trump told executives, “I don’t know what he said. Nobody knows,” adding that “there is tremendous testing and the governors will use whatever testing is necessary—and if they’re not satisfied with their testing, they shouldn’t open.” In fact, governors and health experts alike have repeatedly said the country does not have adequate levels of testing, and that millions of tests should be administered each week before people can go back to work.

Trump, of course, has previously suggested he wants to get people back to business as usual as soon as possible, first throwing out Easter Sunday as a target and, more recently, May 1. He’s also insisted he has the “total” authority to “reopen” the country, which isn’t actually true at all, not only because governors have that power but because that’s not how any of this works. “The opening of a return to modern American life will be a public health decision, period,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former chief economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, told the Journal. “The notion that there’s a control room in the West Wing and this group will gather around the president and say ‘Go ahead press the button, sir, we’re going to restart’—that’s not how the U.S. economy works.”