Fox News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts announced Monday that it appears that “only government people” have been selected to join the “Council to Re-Open America,” which is chaired by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
The short list of US officials includes Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Director of the US National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Netizens stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic were quick to comment on the so-called “experts” called to oversee the reopening of the US.
Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner have been criticized recently for making statements to the American people regarding the COVID-19 novel coronavirus while having no expertise in the realms of economics or medicine.
For the past several weeks, netizens have also brought up the fact that Kudlow, back in February, claimed to CNBC that the novel coronavirus was “contained” in the US.
“I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight,” he said on February 25. The National Economic Council director asserted the COVID-19 outbreak would only result in a “human tragedy,” rather than an “economic tragedy” for the US.
Similarly, Mnuchin said last month that the unemployment rate in the US was not “relevant” when assessing the impact of the novel coronavirus on the country.
“To be honest, I think these numbers right now aren’t relevant whether they’re bigger or shorter in the short term,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on March 26, when reports were then claiming 3.28 million new unemployment claims had been filed in a single week.
Before the Trump administration even acknowledged the presence of COVID-19 in the US, Ross appeared on Fox Business in January to assert that the novel coronavirus would “accelerate the return of jobs to North America.”
“The fact is, it does give businesses yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain,” he said, referring to businesses who have a choice to run operations in the US or China.