Earlier this month, while touring a factory in Arizona, President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to reopen the American economy as soon as possible. While being ominously serenaded by the refrain from “Live and Let Die,” Trump drew a comparison between ordinary citizens and soldiers fighting in a war. “Our country wants to open. And you see what’s going on. They have to open,” he declared. “I’m viewing our great citizens of this country, to a certain extent and to a large extent, as warriors.”

Few who heard these remarks can have missed the real implication of either Trump’s words or his chosen metaphor, which indicated his willingness to reopen the US economy in full understanding of the catastrophic death toll that would almost certainly ensue. Plenty were no doubt also hesitant about his prescription. If polls like the one recently conducted by the Pew Research Center are to be believed, an overwhelming majority of Americans are concerned that the economy will be reopened too quickly. Even a majority of self-identified Republicans still believes quarantine measures are necessary, though they are far less likely than Democrats to think the worst of the crisis still lies ahead.

Nonetheless, Trump’s remarks tell us something about where the partisan battle lines this summer will probably be drawn: between a Republican leadership bent on fully reopening the economy with little concern about the human cost, and a Democratic leadership intent on maintaining many of the existing quarantine and social-distancing measures. Whatever outcome this tug-of-war ultimately produces, the catastrophic impact of the crisis on ordinary Americans is already incalculable: amid spiking unemployment, millions are losing not only their jobs and incomes but their health insurance as well.