But here’s the problem: the “downward trajectory” that the White House laid out as the key to reopening the economy is just not there. The numbers are going up in Middle America, not down.

Consider the four states that Trump indicated could open up “literally tomorrow.” None of them has big case numbers, but over the last fourteen days, the number of cases has been going up on about half of their day-to-day comparisons.

In Utah, the count of newly reported cases from April 13 to 15 went up from 48 to 122 to 134. In North Dakota, the new cases identified daily by the state health department from April 12 to 16 have been 23, 10, 24, 28, and 46. While the numbers in Wyoming are tiny, there were five days during the last two weeks in which the number of new confirmed cases was equal to or higher than the day before. In Montana, on several days in the past two weeks (including April 8 and April 10), the new cases were higher than the day before.