Donald Trump claims his administration's actions have "saved millions of lives" and claims the US is already bouncing back from the coronavirus crisis.
The president told the New York Post "there's a great optimism" in the country and he predicts a major economic turnaround in the final quarter of 2020.
It comes as around half the country's state governors ramped up the re-opening of their economies over the weekend, despite a newly revised coronavirus mortality model predicting nearly 135,000 Americans will die from Covid-19 by early August, almost double previous projections.
“I think they’re starting to feel good now," Trump said during an interview in the Oval office, apparently sat with a printed list of accomplishments in front of him.
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"The country’s opening again. We saved millions of lives, I think."
Covid-19 has infected nearly 1.2 million Americans, killed almost 70,000 and left 30 million unemployed — about 18 percent of all US workers.
Many governors are remaining resolute about re-opening for business with New York's Andrew Cuomo declaring that lifting restrictions already is premature.
Over the past fortnight, several states had already started easing measures by opening stores, restaurants and other public spaces.
This is despite federal guidelines calling for the number of cases to fall for 14 straight days before beginning to relax lockdown.
Texas began lifting restrictions on Friday - the same day the US reporting a single-day high in deaths with 2,909 people succumbing to the killer bug.
Stores, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums and libraries were allowed to reopen but with limited occupancy - just 25 per cent of their capacity.
The United States, with the world's third-largest population, has five times as many cases as the next hardest-hit countries.
The U.S. Senate, meanwhile, convened in Washington for the first time in nearly six weeks yesterday, despite concern it might put lawmakers and staff at risk of contracting the coronavirus, but made clear it could take weeks to pass any new relief legislation.
Party leaders raised partisan differences as soon as the Senate opened over the next step in how to combat the pandemic, nominations for senior government posts put forward by Trump and even the decision to return.
This comes after members of the US coronavirus task force have been told they cannot testify to committees unless it is agreed with the White House.
Trump's administration had moved to block Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, from testifying before a House panel.
Democrats have said the block would hamper their ability to gather detailed information about the nation's response to the pandemic.
The latest forecast from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projects nearly 135,000 Americans will die from coronavirus by mid-August.
"We expect that the epidemic in many states will now extend
through the summer," the IHME director, Dr. Christopher Murray,
said in a statement.
