Watch Live: Task Force Unveils ‘Details’ Of Trump’s Coronavirus-Impact Bailout Plan

Update (1729ET): Barely more than a minute after our last update, Javers reported that they’re setting up the Vice Presidential seal at the podium in the press room, indicating that Trump will not be joining the task force this evening.

And… now they’re setting up the vice presidential seal and flag. Good indicator we are NOT about to hear from POTUS. Aides caution he could always come in late, though, so stand by. pic.twitter.com/rX5JjYkdQ5

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) March 10, 2020

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Update (1727ET): Eamon Javers just tweeted that nobody is sure whether President Trump is coming to the press conference tonight.

That was basically the impression we had. Trump did promise to release the details of the plan ‘tonight’. But if there aren’t any details to release…well.

GIven his showman instincts, a surprise appearance isn’t out of the question.

As of right now, aides will not say whether or not President Trump will be coming to the 5:30 press briefing to unveil his economic plan. POTUS said last night that he would have a news conference today to announce major and dramatic economic plans. That has not happened yet.

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) March 10, 2020

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Last night, as the White House scrambled think of something, anything that they could say that might calm anxious markets (and increasingly anxious workers and business owners), President Trump dropped in on the task force’s press briefing (VP Pence, the task force’s nominal head, was supposed to lead) and told reporters that the administration was planning a stimulus package aimed at helping Americans cope with the economic fallout from the outbreak.

Trump has already signed an $8.3 billion stimulus package into law, but that money’s been earmarked to help the CDC and states fight the outbreak via testing and accomplish urgent priorities like rapidly expanding bed capacity to handle the soon to be overwhelming numbers of patients with life-threatening pneumonia who will be flooding emergency rooms – at least, that’s according to the most dire predictions of states and the CDC.

Now, he needs to convince markets that the administration is going to come through with the fiscal stimulus that every analyst, economist and armchair trader with a twitter account believes is necessary to save the US economy – if not the whole global economy – from sliding into a brutal recession.

With markets finishing in the green on Tuesday, the sense of urgency has slackened somewhat. Still, reporters are claiming that there is no plan, and that Trump essentially pulled the payroll tax cut idea out of his ass, failing to run it by his staff and senior administration officials, as well as the Congressional Republican leadership.

But since President Trump promised earlier to unveil the ‘details’ of his plan tonight, it appears he will be joining the task force to lay out the broad strokes of a ‘plan’ that’s reportedly nowhere near finished.

Will Trump start a war with fellow Republicans at a time of urgent national crisis, with his electoral future on the line? Hopefully, for his sake, his advisors have made clear just how important it is to convey to the public that this is a serious problem that Trump and his administration are meeting with serious solutions.

During a tweet sent a few hours ago, Trump praised the task force, and notably omitted any reference to the media conspiracy he alleges is being orchestrated to blame him for the outbreak.

The press conference is set to begin at 5:30, but like most Trump Administration press briefings, we suspect it will be late. Will Trump and the White House task force manage to restore confidence in the market and stop today’s rally from being just a dead cat bounce?

You’ll have to watch to find out: