Tag: Trump White House

White House officials asked to wear masks in West Wing

The Hill logoWhite House officials working in the West Wing are being asked to wear masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to a memo distributed to staffers on Monday.

Officials in the building are being asked to wear face coverings when they’re not at their desks or able to maintain social distancing from others, a White House official confirmed to The Hill.

The memo, which was obtained by The Hill, also urges staffers to “avoid unnecessary visits” to the White House. Continue reading.

‘Fear is subsuming his presidency’: NYT reporter explains how Trump lost control of the pandemic

AlterNet logoWith more White House staffers getting infected with COVID-19 every day, President Donald Trump is having a hard time convincing Americans that it is safe for them to go back to work.

Appearing on CNN Monday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said that Trump has lost control of his pandemic messaging as even his own staffers are saying they’re scared to come to work.

“Fear is subsuming his presidency,” she said. “And it is fear within the public, fear among the public, fear within his White House. Those are not comments he generally wanted to hear. He wants people to suggest that this is, yes, this is bad, but we’re not afraid. He doesn’t like the optics of wearing a mask.” Continue reading.

Pompeo is Trump attack dog on China, COVID-19

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo has positioned himself as the Trump administration’s most aggressive China critic, pushing the argument that Beijing holds responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic.

He’s drawn the ire of Chinese officials and state-backed media, who label him a “liar” and have called him “the common enemy of mankind” for his attacks on the Communist Party, shifting their attacks directly on the secretary and away from earlier accusations speculating the U.S. military spread COVID-19.

And despite mixed messages from U.S. officials and pushback from allies, the secretary continues to speculate whether the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese laboratory as he demands a global investigation. Continue reading.

Meadows learns to navigate Kushner’s sprawling White House influence

The new chief of staff is witnessing Trump White House truisms: Power centers vie over many decisions, and Jared Kushner is often the most powerful voice.

When the White House’s top domestic policy job came open in recent weeks, newly installed chief of staff Mark Meadows was quick to suggest a surprising name: Stephen Miller.

The proposal, described by three people familiar with the situation, would place Miller, the hard-charging force behind the administration’s immigration policies, in a better-defined role as Meadows worked to reshape the West Wing.

But Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, intervened. He suggested others he had worked with at the White House. Eventually, Derek Lyons, who is viewed as close to Kushner, became the new acting director of the Domestic Policy Council. Continue reading.

White House aides rattled after positive coronavirus tests and officials send mixed messages on how to respond

Washington Post logoThe White House on Saturday scrambled to deal with the fallout from two aides testing positive for the coronavirus, as officials who were potentially exposed responded differently, with some senior members of the pandemic task force self-quarantining while others planned to continue to go to work.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, both task force members, said they are self-quarantining or teleworking for two weeks after exposure to a coronavirus case at the White House. On Saturday night, a spokeswoman for Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases official, acknowledged that working from home sometimes will be among the precautions he is taking.

But several administration officials said White House staffers were encouraged to come into the office by their supervisors, and that aides who travel with President Trump and Vice President Pence would not stay out for 14 days, the recommended time frame to quarantine once exposed to the virus. Continue reading.

Pence had CEOs remove masks before meeting with him — hours after his press secretary tested positive for COVID-19

AlterNet logoThe Trump administration is not only ignoring CDC and medical experts’ guidelines it is actively working to make Americans less safe.

On Friday Vice President Mike Pence flew aboard Air Force Two to Des Moines, Iowa, to meet with food industry CEOs. His flight was delayed after his press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for coronavirus. Several staffers were forced to exit the plane before it took off. Also board were Iowa Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

Pence held a roundtable discussion at the headquarters of the Hy-Vee supermarket chain. As The Intercept reports, five industry executives, seated at the table, all wearing masks, were approached by a staffer who asked them to remove their masks before the Vice President would come to the table (video below.) Continue reading.

Trump sought a reopening but found the virus in the White House instead

President Donald Trump hoped this would be the week he emerged into a nation recovering from pandemic. Instead the pandemic came to him.

A day after breaking his White House self-isolation for a cross-country trip meant to signal the country’s readiness to restart, Trump received word that one of his Oval Office valets tested positive for the virus.

Two days later, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary also tested positive, setting off another round of tests, delaying the vice president’s trip to Iowa and causing more hand-wringing inside the White House about who might be infected. Continue reading.

Positive coronavirus cases shake White House

The Hill logoThe coronavirus is hitting close to home at the White House, where two staffers with access to President Trump and Vice President Pence have tested positive in the last two days.

One of the president’s personal valets tested positive Thursday after exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus Wednesday. The president said he did not have regular “personal contact” with the military member, but he was reportedly agitated by news that someone close to him had tested positive.

Concerns about the virus’s presence in the White House grew Friday when a Pence staffer tested positive. Trump later appeared to confirm the infected individual was Katie Miller, the vice president’s press secretary and the wife of senior White House adviser Stephen Miller. Continue reading.

Trump flouts coronavirus protocols as security experts warn of need to protect president from a lethal threat

Washington Post logoPresident Trump on Friday continued to eschew key public health guidelines from his own administration — meeting with Republican lawmakers and World War II veterans without a face mask — while expressing confidence that he is protected from the coronavirus despite a second White House staffer testing positive this week.

The president appeared puzzled that the aide, Katie Miller, the press secretary for Vice President Pence, had contracted the virus “out of the blue” after testing negative several times under a routine White House screening program put in place last month.

During the event with GOP members, Trump suggested “the whole concept of tests isn’t great,” but he declared that he was satisfied with the procedures that are in place to protect him and his top aides. Continue reading.

White House’s pandemic relief effort Project Airbridge is swathed in secrecy and exaggerations

Washington Post logoOn May 1, as White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, an illustration of an airplane flying to the moon appeared on the monitors beside her.

“One hundred flights for Project Airbridge have been completed to date,” McEnany said, delivering “nearly 1 billion pieces” of personal protective equipment to the front lines. The flights had traveled 720,000 miles, the display read, equal to “more than 3 trips to the moon!”

Since the debut of Project Airbridge in March, the Trump administration has promoted the initiative as part of a historic mobilization “moving heaven and earth” to source and deliver vast amounts of medical supplies from overseas to pandemic hot spots in the United States. Continue reading.