That wasn’t sufficient for a reporter from Newsmax, though, who pressed him just 10 minutes later on whether he might reopen the economy by April 30 or May 1.

Trump again demurred on setting a date, saying, “I don’t want to do that. … I was criticized for that, so I don’t like giving dates.”

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Apparently, though, that’s exactly what he’s doing privately. And as the question from the conservative outlet showed, he’s still getting plenty of pressure on this.

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The Washington Post reported late Thursday that Trump has, in fact, set the end of the month as his target. As The Post’s Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, Jose A. Del Real and William Wan report:

Behind closed doors, President Trump — concerned with the sagging economy — has sought a strategy for resuming business activity by May 1, according to people familiar with the discussions. In phone calls with outside advisers, Trump has even floated trying to reopen much of the country before the end of this month, when the current federal recommendations to avoid social gatherings and work from home expire, the people said. Trump regularly looks at unemployment and stock market numbers, complaining that they are hurting his presidency and reelection prospects, the people said.

Some of the pressure is coming from Trump’s conservative media allies, but as we’re increasingly learning, it’s also coming from within his administration. In the same story, The Post’s team reported that Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, is arguing that models oversell the number of potential coronavirus deaths and that the country has thus far overreacted.

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Attorney General William P. Barr also indicated this week that he wanted to loosen the reins, saying we should be careful about taking such “draconian” measures.

“When this period of time, at the end of April, expires, I think we have to allow people to adapt more than we have, and not just tell people to go home and hide under their bed, but allow them to use other ways — social distancing and other means — to protect themselves,” Barr told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

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Ingraham, too, has consistently played up the idea of reopening the economy even as Trump and the White House have publicly backed off and now again eased toward it.

“At some point, the president is going to have to look at Drs. Fauci and Birx and say, we’re opening on May 1,” Ingraham said Wednesday on Twitter.

The Washington Post reported recently that Trump had met April 3 with Ingraham and a couple of doctors who appear on her show who pushed the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients.

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Fellow prime time Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who unlike many of his Fox colleagues took the virus seriously early on, has also leaned in on the idea of reopening, even urging Trump and other leaders not to listen to Anthony S. Fauci.

“For all his credentials, experience and apparent decency, Doctor Fauci doesn’t seem to understand” the economic pain the country is facing, Carlson said this week. “We should never let someone like that run the country.”

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“Fox and Friends” morning show host Brian Kilmeade has also called the restrictions “a self-inflicted wound” and “a slow-motion car wreck that we brought on ourselves.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), like Ingraham, was an at-times-lonely voice on this, writing a USA Today column on March 31, even as cases were spiking in New York, that argued, “Every premature death is a tragedy, but death is an unavoidable part of life.”

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Other members of Trump’s inner circle are also floating dates that are sooner than health officials have urged, with chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow saying he hopes “in the next four to eight weeks, we will be able to open the economy.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also agreed this week that some businesses could start reopening in May, saying when asked whether he thinks that’s reasonable, “I do.”

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Offering an optimistic timeline, though, and pressuring Trump to actually take these steps are two different things. But what’s clear is that there are plenty of people who have influence over Trump who are actually pushing him in this direction — either because they truly think it’s the right thing to do or because Trump has made it obvious it’s a message he wants to hear and see broadcast.

The problem with setting such target dates, though, as we’ve already seen with Trump’s Easter goal, is that they may wind up being wholly impractical. And health officials both around Trump and elsewhere are still casting doubt on these types of goals.