Tag: Trump White House

Grisham leaves role as White House press secretary

The Hill logoStephanie Grisham is leaving her position as White House press secretary after less than a year on the job, according to two people familiar with the matter.

She is expected to return to her original post representing first lady Melania Trump.

Grisham, who replaced Sarah Huckabee Sanders in June, will leave her position without ever having conducted a White House briefing. Her departure follows the arrival of President Trump’s new chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who is said to be interviewing potential replacements.  Continue reading.

Dr. Fauci Warned In 2017 Of ‘Surprise Outbreak’ During Trump Administration

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, warned in early 2017 that a “surprise outbreak” would occur during the Trump administration, and he said that more needed to be done to prepare for a pandemic.

“There is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases,” he said in a speech titled “Pandemic Preparedness in the Next Administration” at Georgetown University Medical Center. He delivered it just days before Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017.

Fauci, who has overseen the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, warned that looming health challenges would involve both chronic diseases ―  ones already ongoing ― as well as “a surprise outbreak.” Continue reading.

He Went to Jared

New York Times logoHeaven help us, we’re at the mercy of the Slim Suit crowd.

A few years ago, when some photos by Times photographers adorning our office walls were swapped out for others, I found one headed for the dumpster.

It captured the scene when Andy Card came over to whisper to George W. Bush, as he read “The Pet Goat” to schoolchildren in Sarasota, that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

It was such a pivotal moment in this country’s history, it seemed too important to toss. So I hung it in my office. Continue reading.

Trump selects White House lawyer for coronavirus inspector general

The Hill logoPresident Trump announced Friday that he has selected a member of the White House Counsel’s office to serve as the inspector general overseeing the dispersement of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds as part of the coronavirus relief package.

Trump has tapped Brian Miller, who serves as a special assistant to the president and senior associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s office, to serve as the special inspector general for pandemic recovery.

The new position, under the Department of the Treasury, is tasked with tracking loans, loan guarantees and other expenditures made by the department. It was created as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill and is authorized for five years. Continue reading.

Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses

Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.

The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September, and organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a key player in the program. Continue reading.

Kushner company stands to benefit from freeze on federal mortgage payments

With more than $800 million in federally backed properties, Kushner Companies could reduce its payments to zero under provisions of the recovery bill.

Jared Kushner’s family business could be a prime beneficiary of a provision in the federal recovery bill that allows owners of apartment buildings to freeze federal mortgage payments on low- and moderate-income properties.

Kushner Companies, the real estate firm started in 1985 by Kushner’s father, Charles, controls thousands of low- and moderate-housing units across the country, some of which are funded through an $800 million federally backed loan the firm received in 2019.

The option for owners to temporarily freeze mortgage payments on low- and moderate-income housing developments, in exchange for promising not to evict tenants who can’t pay their rent, was one of the economic provisions approved by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump last week. It is considered a way to keep lower-income apartment dwellers in their homes, but also shifted the burden of housing them from their landlords to the federal government and taxpayers. Continue reading.

Kushner Puts Himself in Middle of White House’s Chaotic Coronavirus Response

New York Times logoPresident Trump’s son-in-law has become a central player in the administration’s effort to curb the pandemic. But critics say he is part of the problem.

WASHINGTON — Peter T. Gaynor, the federal government’s top emergency manager, was about to go on television last week to announce that he would use wartime production powers to ensure the manufacture of about 60,000 desperately needed coronavirus test kits.

With minutes until the camera went live, though, he still had to let the White House know. The person he hurriedly called: Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who endorsed an announcement that surprised many officials. Among those unaware that Mr. Kushner had agreed to the use of the special powers? President Trump.

At one of the most perilous moments in modern American history, Mr. Kushner is trying in a disjointed White House to marshal the forces of government for the war his father-in-law says he is waging. A real estate developer with none of the medical expertise of a public health official nor the mobilization experience of a general, Mr. Kushner has nonetheless become a key player in the response to the pandemic. Continue reading.

Mnuchin emerges as key asset in Trump’s war against coronavirus

The Hill logoTreasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has taken on an outsized role in the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus, serving as a key conduit between President Trump and Congress. 

Mnuchin has helped shepherd through two massive legislative packages aimed at helping address the public health crisis and the ensuing economic fallout, engaging constantly with Democratic leaders despite the considerable partisan divide that has plagued Washington.

“We had had Secretary Mnuchin and Mr. Mulvaney and others, and I think both Republicans and Democrats made it very clear the person they wanted to talk to with was Secretary Mnuchin,” said Senate Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), referencing Trump’s outgoing acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Continue reading.

Inside the White House during ’15 Days to Slow the Spread’

Staffers described a time of reassessment as the West Wing reoriented itself entirely around a singular mission. They witnessed historic moments. They wondered what it would all mean.

An eerie quiet crept over the White House.

Desks were empty. Office lights were turned off. Many staffers had been told to work from home. The bustling Navy Mess was closed, and the usual stream of visitors rushing in and out of the West Wing had slowed to a trickle. Left behind were President Donald Trump, his top aides, and a small group of staffers, hunkered down and making battle plans as the novel coronavirus marched across the country. All were acutely aware their decisions in the coming days could define their legacies — not to mention whether they kept their jobs after 2020.

It was the beginning of the 15-day period during which the White House hoped it could slow the advancing virus and stem the economic bleeding left in its wake. For the next two weeks, the president’s coronavirus task force encouraged Americans to essentially self-quarantine, while aides worked with anxious governors across the country and quarreling lawmakers negotiating over the largest economic recovery bill the country has ever seen. Continue reading.

The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19

New York Times logoAggressive screening might have helped contain the coronavirus in the United States. But technical flaws, regulatory hurdles and lapses in leadership let it spread undetected for weeks.

WASHINGTON — Early on, the dozen federal officials charged with defending America against the coronavirus gathered day after day in the White House Situation Room, consumed by crises. They grappled with how to evacuate the United States consulate in Wuhan, China, ban Chinese travelers and extract Americans from the Diamond Princess and other cruise ships.

The members of the coronavirus task force typically devoted only five or 10 minutes, often at the end of contentious meetings, to talk about testing, several participants recalled. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its leaders assured the others, had developed a diagnostic model that would be rolled out quickly as a first step.

But as the deadly virus spread from China with ferocity across the United States between late January and early March, large-scale testing of people who might have been infected did not happen — because of technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, business-as-usual bureaucracies and lack of leadership at multiple levels, according to interviews with more than 50 current and former public health officials, administration officials, senior scientists and company executives. Continue reading.