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President Trump on Wednesday said he backed off plans to dissolve the White House coronavirus task force after public outcry, saying he didn't realize how "popular" the group of medical experts and government leaders was. "I thought we could wind it down sooner," Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event recognizing National Nurses Day. "But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding down. ... It is appreciated by the public." (Samuels, 5/6)

In tweets Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Pence’s work on the task force. “Because of this success, the Task Force will continue on indefinitely with its focus on SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN,” he wrote. He added that the task force’s membership could change. Mr. Trump has urged more states to open up and has said he plans to start traveling more around the country. Lockdowns in many states in the U.S. have begun to ease. (Ansari, Lin and Kalin, 5/6)

The indecision on the fate of the expert panel was emblematic of an administration — and a country — struggling with competing priorities of averting more death and more economic suffering. Trump appears focused on persuading Americans to accept the price of some lives lost as restrictions are eased, concerned about skyrocketing unemployment and intent on encouraging an economic rebound ahead of the November election. (Miller, Colvin and Superville, 5/6)

Asked later if Americans will have to accept that reopening will lead to more deaths, Trump told reporters: “You have to be warriors. We can’t keep our country closed down for years and we have to do something. Hopefully that won’t be the case, but it could very well be the case.” Governors have faced mounting pressure to ease stay-at-home orders and mandatory business closures that have ravaged the economy, throwing millions of Americans out of work, even as those measures succeeded in fighting the virus. (Mason and Chiacu, 5/6)

The task force will soon be dead. The task force will mutate. The task force will be replaced by multiple task forces. Over the last 24 hours, the White House rolled out a variety of shifting messages and confusing justifications about what would become of its coronavirus task force, some members of which have become the admired face of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. (Oprysko, Ehley, Roubein and Forgey, 5/6)

A key House panel held a hearing Wednesday on the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic but had to do so without testimony from any members of the Trump administration. The absences of key figures in the battle against COVID-19 — including Anthony Fauci, the administration's top infectious diseases expert — prompted frustration from members of both parties. (Hellmann, 5/6)

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended the decision to prevent Anthony Fauci from appearing before a House panel and accused House Democrats of not acting “in good faith.” Questioned about the decision at an afternoon briefing, McEnany said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) did not provide a specific subject matter or purpose for the hearing in correspondence with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. (Chalfant, 5/6)