Trump unveils ‘Opening Up America’ plan

President Donald Trump announced new federal guidelines for reopening the U.S. on Thursday that puts the onus on governors for making decisions about their own state economies.

Trump called the recommendations “the next front in our war, which is called opening up America again.”

Under the first phase of the three-phase plan, restaurants, movie theaters and large sporting venues would be appropriate to reopen under certain conditions, while schools, day care centers and bars would not.

The plan, released Thursday afternoon, is designed to “mitigate the risk of resurgence” of the pandemic and to “protect the most vulnerable,” the guidelines say.

It is “implementable on a statewide or county-by-county basis” at the discretion of each state’s governor — a stark contradiction from the president’s earlier assertion that he had “total authority” to direct governors how and when to reopen.

The guidelines do not suggest any reopening dates and Trump acknowledged it would be “a gradual process.”

He said the strategy is based on “hard verifiable data” and “benchmarks must be met at each phase.”