Even as his own experts grew increasingly alarmed, Trump did not have an intelligence briefing on his schedule until Jan. 6.
WASHINGTON — Even as experts in his own government were increasingly alarmed about a pandemic threat this January, President Donald Trump apparently remained unconcerned, with no scheduled intelligence briefings before Jan. 6 and only nine the entire month.
In the first week of the year, when dire warnings about the coronavirus and the threat posed to the United States reportedly began showing up in his daily intelligence packet, Trump had only one scheduled briefing, according to a HuffPost review of his daily schedules.
On Jan. 18, when his Health and Human Services secretary finally managed to reach Trump on a Florida golf weekend to discuss the threat, Trump had no scheduled intelligence briefing. Nor was there one on his schedule for Jan. 22, the day Trump famously told CNBC that the virus posed no danger and was limited to a single person who had come in from China. Continue reading.