President Donald Trump made some clarifications on the speculated members of the second coronavirus task force focused on the reopening of the economy. Contrary to previous reports, the President told reporters on Monday that his senior advisers Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner would not be members of the new White House council, according to The Hill.
The NY Post earlier reported that President Trump’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner will be members of the second coronavirus task force. The POTUS announced last week that he will be naming the members of the “Opening Our Country Council” shortly.
Aside from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, it was also speculated that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and economic adviser Larry Kudlow will become members of the new council. The council will be separate from the White House coronavirus task force headed by Vice President Mike Pence but the two groups are expected to work together.
“We’re going to have the great business leaders, great doctors,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “We’re going to have a great group of people.”
The President also stressed the need to open up the U.S. economy once more. “I want to get the country open as soon as possible,” the POTUS said. “This country was meant to be open and vibrant and great, not where people are staying in.”
The Trump administration has been mulling the possibility of relaxing social distancing in certain parts of the country to help revive the economy. Thus, one of the tasks of the new council is to put up some sort of guidelines.
“We’re going to be putting out guidelines and recommendations fairly quickly, within a few days,” Donald Trump told reporters on Monday.
The President also assured that while he wants the country to reopen as soon as possible, he also wants to ensure that it the country can already reopen safely. Trump promised more details about the administration’s plans to be announced soon.
People have been instructed to stay at home while nonessential businesses have been closed to slow down the spread of the virus. However, the measures also caused massive layoff and almost 17 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the past three weeks.