Trump Wants to Disband Coronavirus Task Force as Deaths Pass 70,000

President Donald Trump wants to wound down the Coronavirus task force despite the fact the pandemic is not over. He made the comments on Tuesday in what has been widely interpreted as a pivot away from tackling the virus and toward economic reopening.

“Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job,” Trump said in Arizona.

“But we’re now looking at a little bit of a different form and that form is safety and opening and we’ll have a different group probably set up for that.”

He refused to accept that it was ‘mission accomplished’ but his comments seemed to suggest he thought otherwise.

“No, not at all. The mission accomplished is when it’s over,” he said. “We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years.”

Trump’s suggestion has not been well received. The U.S. death toll from Coronavirus has passed 72,000 with more expected as the country is now the epicenter of the disease. Previous reporting claimed Trump was growing tired of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has won Americans’ trust and sometimes contradicted the President.