Trump Calls Decision On Opening Up Country Biggest Of His Life, Sets Up New Task Force

President Donald Trump said he is facing the "biggest decision of his life" and said he would be putting together a new team of advisers who will tell him when it's time to reopen America amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"I don’t know that I’ve had a bigger decision," the president said Friday (April 10) during his White House press briefing.

The members of the new 'Opening Our Country Council' will be named Tuesday (April 14) and will likely include doctors, business leaders, governors and key people in the U.S.

This advisory council will work separately from the White House Coronavirus Task Force that is headed by Vice President Mike Pence. Trump said that this new team will be geographically diverse and could include a few Democrats who have "gained great respect" from the president because of how they have handled the pandemic so far.

"I'm going to surround myself with the greatest minds -- not only the greatest minds, but the greatest minds in numerous different businesses, including the business of politics and reason," Trump said in his press briefing Friday. "I want to put on both parties, I want to have some governors, I’m not gonna have all of the governors but I’d like to put some representative governors on the council," the president added.

The move comes as Trump has repeatedly expressed eagerness for the U.S. to return to normal. The stay-at-home and social distancing guidelines imposed by the President are in effect until April 30.

While those steps were necessitated by the pandemic that has ranged across the country, the freezing of the economic engine has led to equally devastating economic consequences including job losses and a deep slowdown. Those are expected to have lasting impact even after the economy opens, something that Trump -- who has touted a robust economy under his watch and betted on it for his reelection is November -- is acutely aware of.

The president has been impatient to reopen the country. Late last month he had indicated a reopening by Easter, and even said the "country wasn’t built to be shut down.”

"Hopefully it's going to be the right decision," Trump said again Friday. "I will say this -- I want to get it open as soon as we can. We have to get our country open." He also made it clear during the press briefing that the final decision will be his.

Medical experts, however, have been saying that resuming activities and businesses as normal may bring grave consequences as the virus is not yet under control and wider testing and other diagnostic measures have not yet been implemented. Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, however, told the president at the press briefing that the country is beginning to see cases leveling out.

Birx said that while the numbers are encouraging, the U.S. has not yet reached its peak.

"Every day we need to continue to do what we did yesterday and the week before and the week before that," the doctor said. "That is what, in the end, is going to take us up across the peak and down the other side."

"This is not the time to feel that since we have made such important advances ... that we need to be pulling back at all," infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci also echoed Birx's opinion during the briefing.

To date, America's confirmed coronavirus cases have reached 500,399, with 18,693 deaths and 28,837 recoveries.