Trump calls for prayer, highlights COVID-19 sacrifices on Easter weekend

President Trump asked the American people to pray this Easter weekend as the country suffers from the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our people are making tremendous sacrifices to end this pandemic,” Mr. Trump said in a Good Friday call for prayer from the Oval Office. “Though we will not be able to gather together with one another as we normally would on Easter, we can use this sacred time to focus on prayer, reflection and growing our personal relationship with God, so important.

“I ask all Americans to pray that God will heal our nation, to bring comfort to those who are grieving, to give strength to the doctors, nurses and health care workers, to restore to the sick and to renew the hope in every person who is suffering,” Mr. Trump said.

The president cited scripture and thanked Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, second lady Karen Pence, for their service to the nation and “their service to God.”

He also thanked Americans who have prayed for him and the first family.

Mr. Trump was joined by Bishop Harry Jackson, a Pentecostal preacher from Maryland who offered an Easter blessing.

The bishop thanked Mr. Trump for including churches in the economic-relief legislation he signed last month before offering a prayer for Americans reeling from the threat of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“Let medical science come forth,” the pastor said from the Oval Office.

The coronavirus has infected nearly half a million people in the U.S. and killed nearly 17,000. People often suffer from severe respiratory distress and die without their loved ones nearby, due to the risk of infection.

Families are often unable to provide a normal funeral due to social distancing rules.

Mr. Trump has hailed essential workers on the front lines of the pandemic and the American people, generally, for abiding by his call to stay at home and avoid crowds.

“At this holy time our nation is engaged in a battle like never before, the invisible enemy,” he said Friday. “Our brave doctors, nurses and responders, first responders, responders of all, are fighting to save lives, our workers are racing to deliver critical medical supplies. Our best scientists are working around the clock to develop life-saving therapeutics and I think they’re doing really well in doing so.”

He’s also boasted about the number of people who tune into his daily briefing, which he scheduled for an earlier than usual time slot on Good Friday.

“Because the T.V. Ratings for the White House News Conference’s are the highest, the Opposition Party (Lamestream Media), the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats &, of course, the few remaining RINO’S, are doing everything in their power to disparage & end them. The People’s Voice!” he tweeted.