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President Trump says reopening the country will be the “biggest decision” he’s ever made

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Trump says deciding when to reopen America will be the biggest call of his presidency.

Standing behind the podium in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Friday, April 10, President Trump told reporters at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing that reopening the country’s economy amid the pandemic will be “the biggest decision” he’s ever had to make. The remarks came as the administration weighed how to unwind weeks of lockdowns without triggering a second wave of infections.

• Trump called reopening the country “the biggest decision” of his life and presidency during the April 10 task force briefing.
• Asked what metrics he’d use, Trump pointed to his own head and said, “The metrics right here. That’s my metrics. That’s all I can do.”
• The existing “30 Days to Slow the Spread” guidelines were set to expire April 30, with internal discussions targeting an initial reopening push by May 1.

The Weight of the Call

Trump didn’t downplay the stakes. He described the decision as a balancing act between the economic devastation caused by weeks of shutdowns and the risk of reigniting outbreaks that could cost more lives. He said he’d consult doctors, business leaders, and top advisers, but made clear the final call rests with him alone.

That framing put him at odds with governors who had imposed their own stay-at-home orders on different timelines, an issue already playing out state by state, as seen in Michigan, where residents flooded the state capitol to protest Governor Whitmer’s stay-at-home order. Trump said he hopes to make his reopening decision “in conjunction with governors,” while still asserting he holds ultimate authority to reopen the country.

Instinct Over a Fixed Formula

Reporters pressed Trump repeatedly on what specific data or thresholds would trigger a reopening. He didn’t offer a numeric benchmark.

“The metrics right here. That’s my metrics. That’s all I can do.”

Trump said his determination would come from a mix of data, facts on the ground, and his own instinct, rather than a single dashboard of case counts or testing figures. Public health officials on the task force, by contrast, had been urging caution until testing capacity expanded and infection rates showed a sustained decline.

A Second Task Force for the Economy

Alongside the reopening remarks, the administration signaled it would stand up a second task force focused specifically on economic recovery and reopening guidelines. The group was expected to be led by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, economic adviser Larry Kudlow, and senior adviser Jared Kushner — a lineup built to run parallel to Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx’s public health-focused task force.

The move reflected a White House trying to run two tracks at once: sustaining the public health response while building out the machinery to restart commerce. It also set up a debate that would only intensify in the weeks ahead over how fast states like those featured in school districts weighing reopening against health risks should move.

The May 1 Target

With the original 30-day social distancing guidance expiring April 30, internal discussions had already zeroed in on May 1 as a possible starting point for loosening restrictions. Trump’s comments made clear he was leaning toward moving on that timeline even as health officials pushed for more testing data first — a tension that would define the fight over whether the U.S. reopened faster than other countries facing the same outbreak.

Trump gave no firm date on April 10, but the pieces were already in motion — a new economic task force forming, governors bracing for guidance, and a president who’d just told the country, in plain terms, that the call on when to lift the lockdowns was his to make and his alone.