Donald Trump to announce blue-ribbon council to advise on reopening economy

President Trump said Friday he’s assembling a bipartisan team of doctors, governors, business leaders and administration officials to determine how and when to reopen the country’s economy after the coronavirus crisis has eased.

Mr. Trump said he’ll announce the roster of his “opening-our-country council” on Tuesday.

“I want to get it open as soon as we can,” the president said. “I’m going to make a decision based on a lot of different opinions.”

While the president didn’t say who will serve on the council, he mentioned several governors with whom he has worked well during the crisis: Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo of New York and John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, as well as Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio.

Among the administration officials expected to serve on the council are Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. New White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the former House lawmaker from North Carolina, is expected to lead the panel.

Mr. Trump had hoped to reopen portions of the country by Easter, but decided to extend stay-at-home guidelines until the end of the month as the outbreak spread.

In the past three weeks, nearly 17 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits as the virus has closed restaurants, factories and retail shops. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses also have applied for emergency grants and loans to help them keep paying their workers and expenses.

The president again expressed an urgency to get the country working again.

“The facts are going to determine what I do,” he said. “But we do want to get the country open. So I have a task force, I’ll have a council. It’s going to be announced on Tuesday with names that you have a lot of respect for, a lot of great names. And I want their views on what they think.”

He said the meetings will probably be conducted by teleconference.

“We don’t really want them traveling in [to Washington] for their own purposes,” the president said. “I don’t think it would look good. Also, we don’t want them traveling in.”

The president said the decision facing him on the economy will be the most important of his presidency.

“I have a big decision coming up,” he said. I only hope to God it’s the right decision.”