As a self-described wartime president, Donald Trump is choosing sides in the battle to curtail the damage from the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump is choosing the economy.

Clearly frustrated at the layoffs and stock market plunges that have occurred as result of stay-at-home directives and business shut-downs, Trump Tuesday doubled down on plans to loosen "social distancing" federal guidance meant to keep people from infecting each other. The nation, he declared in a Fox News virtual town hall, will be "open for business" by Easter, April 12.

The statement goes against the recommendations of medical professionals and other government leaders, many of whom have ordered businesses, schools and other gathering places shut down to control the spread of the virus, which by Tuesday afternoon had infected more than 50,000 people and killed more than 600 in the United States alone. Governors from California to New Jersey have shuttered non-essential businesses; the leaders of both India and Great Britain – both of whom enjoy friendly relationships with Trump – ordered strict lockdowns in their countries to limit infections.

But Trump, who early on called the virus worries a "hoax" before issuing guidance asking people to avoid unnecessary travel and shopping, and to avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people, had clearly had enough early this week.

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"You can destroy a country this way by closing it down," Trump said in the Fox town hall. Comparing deaths from the highly infectious virus to those from the common flu (which has a vaccine, unlike coronavirus) and to traffic deaths, Trump said the impact on Americans would be worse if social distancing continues the way it is.

"You're going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or a depression," Trump said. "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 president's remarks are in sharp contrast to the predictions of experts in his own administration. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for example, said Sunday that "hopefully" the virus would be conquered in 10-12 weeks.

And Trump's determination to re-open the country also reflect a man who thrives on the massive social gatherings of his campaign rallies and who was counting on the economy – booming before the pandemic hit – to boost his re-election bid.

But his dramatic plans for an Easter economic resurrection cannot be done without the cooperation of governors, legal experts say. And state executives do not appear to share Trump's optimism about the spread of the virus and the ability of Americans to fight it off. Seventeen states are under some form of stay-at-home order, issued by the governors, while in another 10, parts of the state are under local stay-home directives.

"I don't think he has any meaningful, real tool to override what the governors have done," says Frank Thompson, a Rutgers University professor who has written extensively about health care and federalism. Some GOP governors might take a relaxation of national guidelines to justify lifting restrictions in their own states, but "that could backfire really quickly… if those states begin having serious outbreaks of the disease," he adds.

The Tenth Amendment to the U.S Constitution "reserves to the states regulatory power, with respect to the health and safety and welfare within the states," says John Greabe, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce School of Law.

"In some areas, there is federal power to supersede that. But I cannot conceive of a court … saying the president has the power under the constitution somehow to override a governor who is making a more specific determination about what is necessary locally" to protect the state's population, he says.

Some governors have been reluctant to shut down revenue-producing activities: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, for example, has closed state parks, gyms and restaurants (except for takeout), but has not closed all beaches. At least five University of Tampa students have tested positive for the virus after going on Spring Break .

But others have cast Trump's approach as callous, putting economic health ahead of the health of human beings.

"My mother is not expendable. Your mother is not expendable. We will not put a dollar figure on human life," Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said. "We can have a public health strategy that is consistent with an economic one. No one should be talking about social darwinism for the sake of the stock market."

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming did not criticize Trump by name, but tweeted, "Letting the virus spread to your parents and grandparents to protect your 401k is not pro-life."

Cuomo, who has been holding daily briefings on the virus in New York – which has more cases and deaths from coronavirus than any other state – castigated the Trump administration for sending just 400 ventilators to New York when the state needs many thousands to handle what Cuomo said would be a horrific bump-up in cases in the next two weeks.

"FEMA says 'we're sending 400 ventilators.' Really? What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?" An angry Cuomo said from the Javits Center, a Manhattan convention center being transformed into a coronavirus hospital. "You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators."

That criticism from Cuomo – who has thanked Trump at times for help the federal government has sent – enraged Trump, who claimed at his Tuesday town hall that Cuomo had a chance to buy thousands of ventilators in 2015 and failed to do so.

When Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus task Force, was explaining how international travel and metal surfaces on subways could have transmitted the virus, resulting in New York City's high infection rate, Trump turned to her and interrupted her.