What would such a package contain? A better question is what should it not contain. The most obvious answer is a reduction of the current extra unemployment benefits, which are bringing struggling Americans an additional $600 a week. This is an absolute no-brainer. Unemployment is still in the double digit range. Companies outside the debt collection industry are not going on hiring sprees. This is why reducing the benefit to $200 a week or even $400 a month makes no sense.

Another thing the American people do not need is a payroll tax reduction, at least not unless an explicit provision is made for covering the shortfall in Social Security and Medicare funding. Even then it is difficult to see why this would be anything but a pointless carve-out for businesses. It would make zero difference in the lives of the most vulnerable Americans.

Instead Trump should do something he has talked about on and off for years: Announce a public works program. Start wages at $25 an hour, plus whatever health-care plan the jobbernowls in Congress get. Pay people to build roads, bridges, dams, airports, and train stations; to install updated ‘rona-proof HVAC systems; to put statues of General Sherman and Louis Armstrong in every park in the country. Use your imagination.