Name: How Donald Trump Spent January and February Ignoring Coronavirus Warnings
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How Donald Trump Spent January and February Ignoring Coronavirus Warnings

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“What did the President know and when did he know it?” is among the most from the Watergate hearings—and it's become the definitional question of the current crisis.The New York Times a timeline detailing the intelligence reports about the coronavirus waved off by Donald Trump and his economic advisors going back as early as January. It shows an administration consistent in putting the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of public health, a as Trump decides when to ease restrictions on social distancing and reopen the economy.The National Center for Medical Intelligence, part of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Department were sounding the alarm about the virus spreading from Wuhan, China in early January. The Times reports that Trump’s economic advisors tamped down their reports so as not to upset the negotiations of a trade deal with Beijing.Later in January Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s top advisors, wrote a memo stating that a virus could cause trillions of dollars in damage and result in 500,000 deaths. It argued for swift travel limits with China.Trump seeing this memo, but reports that Navarro’s concerns were indeed raised. The Times reported that Trump was displeased that Navarro had put his thoughts into writing.In early February, public health officials in the Trump administration had put together a strategy that included social distancing, school closures and shelter-in-place suggestions, but were unable to present these to the president. The reason, it is believed, is due to Trump’s frustration at a Centers of Disease Control official who made public statements “too soon,” sending the stock market into a plunge.As such, Trump did not recommend aggressive distancing measures for an additional three weeks. During this time, the virus spread virtually unimpeded in densely populated areas like New York, which, as of , has over 181,000 cases of Covid-19 and 8,650 confirmed deaths.During these first two months of the year, a group of infectious disease experts and doctors, many of them within the Trump administration, were in a group email chain called Red Dawn, a reference to the John Milius film in which a group of teens band together to save America from an invasive threat. (Yes, this is likely the first time C. Thomas Howell has played a key role in public policy.)According to the Times “the officials repeatedly expressed concern about the lack of aggressive action to deal with the virus.”The wedge on how to deal with coronavirus between entrenched individuals working in public service, the so-called Deep State, and Donald Trump was finally acknowledged by the president when he yukked it up on March 20th, inspiring Dr. Anthony Fauci’s seen ‘round the world.More Great Stories From Vanity Fair— : Dispatches From New York City Under Lockdown— How the Coronavirus Crisis— Inside the Viral Spread of a — Progressives Chafe at — and the Failure of the Elites— From the Archive: , the Virus That Threatened PandemicLooking for more? for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.Most Popular is a Queens, New York–based writer who has been contributing to Vanity Fair since 2014. His work can also be read in The Guardian, the A.V. Club, the Times of Israel, and elsewhere. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, has published a book... The freshest-and most essential-updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley.

“What did the President know and when did he know it?” is among the most from the Watergate hearings—and it's become the definitional question of the current crisis.The New York Times a timeline detailing the intelligence reports about the coronavirus waved off by Donald Trump and his economic advisors going back as early as January. It shows an administration consistent in putting the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of public health, a as Trump decides when to ease restrictions on social distancing and reopen the economy.The National Center for Medical Intelligence, part of...

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Vanity Fair is a monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States.  The first version of Vanity Fair was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in 1983 and currently includes five international editions of the magazine. As of 2018, the Editor-in-Chief is Radhika Jones.

How Donald Trump Spent January and February Ignoring Coronavirus Warnings

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