President Donald Trump said that there would be “suicides by the thousands” if the U.S. falls into a recession or depression because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Things will happen, but we have to put the country to work. Look, you’re going to lose a number of people to the flu. But you’re going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression,” Trump told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer in a virtual town hall interview on Tuesday. “You’re going to lose people. You’re going to have suicides by the thousands. You’re going to have all sorts of things happen. You’re going to have instability. You can’t just come in and say, ‘Let’s close up the United States of America, the biggest, the most successful country in the world by far.’”
Trump also said in the town hall that he wants Americans to go back to work and have businesses re-open by the time Easter arrives, despite recommendations from health care organizations that people practice social distancing to help prevent the spread of the virus.
As of Tuesday, at least 618 people in the U.S. have died because of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
As for the economic impact of the coronavirus, the Senate has still been negotiating over a $1.8 trillion economic stabilization package that Senate Democrats have said puts too much power into the hands of the Treasury Department to determine which businesses, states, or cities will receive aid.