Coronavirus: Trump sends mixed signals on economy, saying 'we have to start all over'

President again roots on protesters – some toting assault rifles – who have stormed state capitals to urge opening of economy

Donald Trump sent mixed messages on Friday about the coronavirus-staggered US economy, predicting a swift recovery one moment while declaring a total rebuild is ahead the next.

"We have to start all over again," Mr Trump said during an afternoon meeting with a group of Republican legislators, painting a bleak economic picture. "So many people have died. That's something we can't do anything about, unfortunately."

The president met with GOP lawmakers hours after the Labor Department announced 20m more Americans have lost their jobs, boosting the unemployment rate to 14.5 per cent.

But earlier in the day, he said this: "Those jobs will be back, and they'll be back very soon," the president said, predicting a major economic recovery in 2021.

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There are 1.25m coronavirus-infected Americans and more than 75,000 dead from the respiratory disease that is highly contagious.

Asked by a reporter what evidence he has reviewed to support his stance that the virus will disappear without a vaccine, Mr Trump said he is relying on "what the doctors have said" without elaborating. He then said Covid-19 might "go away" this fall or next year – or sooner, or possibly later.

As he and the GOP members mostly thanked and praised themselves -- and criticised Speaker Nancy Pelosi for opting against bringing the House back into session like the Republican-controlled Senate -- the president cast the dismal economic situation in political terms.

"Some don't want it to come back for political reasons, which is sick," he said, speaking of Democratic legislators.

But then he appeared to encourage protesters to continue storming state capitals to press governors to begin opening their territories. Over 20 have begun doing so, mostly Republican governors.

"You see what's going on at state houses all over the country. People want it to come back," he said, referring to those protesters, some carrying large assault rifles and wearing pro-Trump gear.

The afternoon event in the White House's State Dining Room amounted to a pep talk for a president who reportedly in recent days has been frustrated by the virus and sometimes angry with his staff. For over an hour, Republican lawmakers peppered him with praise for his handling of the pandemic, and told him to stay strong in what they described as a years-long Democratic effort to end his presidency.

Earlier, one of Mr Trump's top economic advisers said the US unemployment rate will continue to rise as May plods on.

"May is going to be another tough month. Look, these numbers, these are numbers that are full of hardship and heartbreak. This is a function of the pandemic as we know. It's a pandemic contraction as we know," Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House."

"I would expect the numbers for May will be difficult. I would expect that," he advised. "Now, the weekly unemployment claims are worth looking at. They're still still rising."

Mr Kudlow is among the most level-headed and experienced of the president's advisers. But he also is one of the most optimistic -- even in the more dire of situations, including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Still, he offered a "glimmer" of hope or two that he found inside the otherwise dismal employment data released earlier in the day by the Labor Department.

"The rate of [employment] decline is slowing. So that's a glimmer," he said before flashing his cautious economist side: "I don't want to put too much emphasis on that."

Mr Kudlow spoke as an aide to Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for Covid-19, the second White House aide to do so in as many days. The positive test came at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington as Mr Pence was departing for a trip to Iowa, the latest potential 2020 swing state he has visited during the pandemic lock down.

With nothing else on his Friday public schedule, Mr Trump's week in the spotlight ended with this Trumpian line: "We've got the some of the best economic scholars, one of them is me."