“What worries me is if this goes south,” said former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. “If he’s right and there are no new cases, and the business community starts to say how amazing that is, then he’s going to look like a hero.”

“But if he opens up Nebraska because there aren’t that many cases there, and more cases suddenly start popping up, he’s going to pay a price,” he said.

A premature “mission accomplished” moment during the Iraq war plagued President George W. Bush the rest of his time in office. Now that same fear is percolating among some Trump allies during his war against coronavirus, countering pressure the president faces from elements of his base to lift restrictions as soon as possible. Moving too soon could exacerbate the health crisis and create an even larger problem for him to overcome closer to the November election…

“If he handles this well, I definitely think he’s going to have another topic to talk about. But if there was another economic collapse, it could also really change our course,” said the second campaign official.