Watch Live: White House Coronavirus Task Force Holds Wednesday Briefing

Update (1705ET): As we wait for the meeting to begin, we’d like to highlight this Bloomberg report from earlier claiming that the president has abandoned the idea of forming a second task force to focus on reopening the economy – a trial balloon that elicited a pretty tepid response from both insiders and the public – and has instead held a “marathon” series of calls with business leaders on Wednesday.

As the outbreak shows signs of plateauing in the country, corporate executives are being asked to advise Trump on how to resume something approaching normal business and social life. Trump was scheduled to speak with more than 200 leaders from nearly every corner of the U.S. economy in four calls.

Several of the companies and other participants said they found out they were invited only after Trump announced their names in a Rose Garden news conference on Tuesday or from a subsequent White House statement. They said they didn’t know the format or the purpose of the calls, and some expressed doubt the exercise would be productive.

The calls began Wednesday morning in Washington. The White House said the discussions would include chief executive officers of some of the country’s largest and most prominent companies, including Tim Cook of Apple Inc., Doug McMillon of Walmart Inc. and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase & Co.

We suspect we’ll be hearing more about the contents of these calls tonight.

*     *     *

Wednesday night’s press briefing is slated to begin at 5pmET, but when the show will actually start is anybody’s guess.

Watch it live below: