Trump's Easter goal in war on virus a nod to faith, business

[left-of-center2012]

President Donald Trump’s “beautiful” idea to reopen the U.S. economy by Easter Sunday and pack church pews that day was dreamed up during a conference call among business leaders desperate to get the country back up and running. But his target date for easing coronavirus restrictions is another outstretched hand to a group he has long courted: evangelical Christians.

Cooped up at the White House and watching the stock market tumble, Trump had already been eager to ease federal guidelines aimed at halting the spread of a virus that had infected more than 55,000 Americans when about a dozen business leaders convened a conference call on Sunday.

“There was a concern — not unanimity, but consensus — that you had to have a reopening of the economy at some point soon,” said Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and informal Trump adviser. On the call, Moore said, he argued in favor of setting a specific date as a goal by which point the economy could gradually begin to be reopened.

While many wanted to see that date set even sooner than Easter, “it’s something that’s coming up that would be obviously a mark on someone’s calendar,” Moore said. “I had made this point that we should call this economic resurrection day.”
“Easter’s a very special day for me. Wouldn’t it be great to have all of the churches full?” Trump later told Fox. “You’ll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time.”

For conservative evangelicals who remain among Trump’s most ardent supporters, the president’s choice of the holiest date on their faith’s calendar was meaningful even as a purely aspirational goal to reboot American life.

https://apnews.com/02d2fdbfd1ddad86b4a9f67643371f0b

[Docreed2003]

1. He's become so freaking predictable

[tanyev]

2. They've been waiting for the Rapture, but they're gonna get Trumptured.

[gratuitous]

3. Less a nod to faith than a cynical appeal to magical thinking

Trump knows his audience, for sure. They eat this bullshit down with a spoon and call it filet mignon.

[WyattKansas]

4. What is Orange Anus going to spew when the tidal wave crashes over the whole country?

And the precious Stock Market again realizes that the United States has an idiot in charge of stopping a pandemic?

[hatrack]

5. I'd say a genuflection to bullshit would be a more accurate description . . .

YMMV.

[stopbush]

6. Like religion, tRump's "nod to faith" is an embrace of fantasy and make believe.

One may as well assert that Peter Pan is on the way to defeat the Coronavirus.