Trump sees opportunity for infrastructure bill amid coronavirus crisis

"With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars."

Between the lines: Trump never liked the idea of public-private partnerships, even though that's exactly what he proposed for his first infrastructure plan, according to sources who've discussed the deal with Trump.

• The president referred to the public-private plan derisively as “Gary’s plan” — a dig at his former economic adviser Gary Cohn.
• Trump was always more enthralled with spending big and dismissing the debt, especially if he could bully the Fed into making money cheaper.

Worth noting: The problem with Trump's infrastructure plan was not Democrats, who were aligned with Trump. The issue was Republicans, as the president faced a roadblock in the Senate. Many elected Republicans oppose raising new taxes to pay for infrastructure or adding new deficit spending to fund it.

The bottom line: Now the coronavirus crisis may have delivered Trump the political conditions to ram an infrastructure plan through.

Go deeper... Scoop: Trump's $2 trillion spending dream