New memos show Donald Trump was warned about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic as early as January 29 — including a highly-specific report that the virus could kill more than 500,000 Americans and cost the country close to $6 trillion.
Axios obtained multiple messages over the past week, all reportedly written by Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro, who explicitly warned his White House colleagues very early on. And as we now know, Trump’s administration dragged its feet for weeks before jumping into action against the pandemic, perhaps greatly worsening its effects within the United States.
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The first memo, dated January 29 and addressed to the National Security Council, was circulated around the White House and Trump’s staff, according to Axios, and specifically called for “an immediate travel ban on China.” You’d think Trump, with his history of controversial travel bans, would’ve been all for the measure — but he did nothing at the time.
According to the outlet, one “senior administration official” working for Trump saw the memo as “alarmist” and dismissed it as a fiction of Navarro’s over-active imagination, at one point reportedly saying:
“The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter’s anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options. The supplemental memo lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed.”
Wow. What a dismissive, simplistic take on something that has so soon-after severely affected the United States and the rest of the world. Must be nice to be working in that Trump administration…
Navarro (pictured in the insert, above) also wrote a “supplemental” memo, as the admin official mentioned, which was sent on February 23 and addressed specifically to the President. In that memo, the Trump adviser warned of the need for Congress to work on major funding projects, both for medical equipment to combat the virus and a broader economic stimulus to support American citizens after massive job losses.
Again, though, senior White House officials blocked the memo from getting to Trump himself, instead assuming Navarro’s concerns were unrealistic. And ironically, now it’s former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon of all people who is coming out in defense of Navarro — and with MAJOR criticisms of Trump and his inept administration.
Bannon spoke to the publication about the White House disregarding both documents, saying:
“[The memos] were prophetic, [and Navarro] had to put them in writing because there was total blockage to get these facts in front of the President of the United States. The naivete, arrogance and ignorance [of White House advisers] put the country and the world in jeopardy. In this Kafkaesque nightmare, nobody would pay attention to Navarro or the facts.”
What kind of administration is this?! Is there anybody capable in charge here??
Navarro Was Correct…
As it turns out, Navarro was largely correct in his concern about the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the United States. We’ll see if his actual infection numbers are true or not, of course, but it’s not about the specific number itself as much as it is his (very early) foresight into how seriously the pandemic was going to affect our way of life.
You may recall Trump said in a January 30 speech that the coronavirus is “going to have a very good ending for us,” and later added in a February 24 tweet that the whole thing was “very much under control” and the “stock market is starting to look very good to me.”
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Of course, the stock market infamously crashed beginning on March 9, with millions of Americans laid off over the next several weeks — and the pandemic has spread wildly across the country with many models suggesting its eventual peak will come later this month, in a best-case scenario. The incompetence here is for REAL, y’all…
Trump’s Terrible Tweet
As if things couldn’t get worse, Trump seemed to hint on Sunday that he may be getting sick of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administration’s infectious disease specialist and the only person working on the coronavirus task force that appears to have his s**t together in fighting back against this pandemic. As you can see (below), Trump quote-tweeted a message in favor of firing Fauci while giving himself credit for having “banned China long ago,” here:
Hmmm… it’s definitely not time to #FireFauci, Donald, because the doctor actually knows what he’s doing and has been clear, open, and honest with the American people. Judging by the revelations made earlier in this story alone, it’s very clear we need MORE of that in this country… not less!!!
Honestly, though, are you surprised that Trump’s administration apparently ignored early warnings about the coronavirus? Seems kind of on-brand for the White House right now, doesn’t it?
Sound OFF with your take about the whole thing down in the comments (below)…
[Image via YouTube]
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