Last week, Senator Susan Collins defended President Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis, arguing in an interview with the Bangor Daily News that Trump “did a lot that was right in the beginning.” But The New York Times has uncovered that President Trump ignored a dire warning from his top trade advisor that coronavirus could put millions of Americans at risk.

 

A memo dated January 29th from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro detailed how a coronavirus outbreak in the United States could escalate into a full-blown pandemic. But for more than a month after Navarro’s warning, Trump continued to downplay the coronavirus threat, claiming at a February 26th press briefing that the number of cases would be “close to zero” “within a couple of days.” 

 

In a second memo on February 23rd, Navarro sounded the alarm on the increasing probability of a coronavirus pandemic in the United States and urged the administration to increase funding for the purchase of personal protective equipment. Despite this early alert, a review of federal purchasing contracts by the Associated Press found that the Trump administration waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders for desperately needed medical equipment.

 

“For Senator Collins to defend Trump’s dysfunctional response to this crisis is an abdication of her responsibility to hold this administration accountable,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “Not only did Trump fail to prepare adequately for this pandemic, he downplayed the threat of the crisis for months and actively ignored the advice of experts. We need a leader who will follow the facts and do what’s right for Mainers, but Senator Collins seems to be focused on doing what’s best for Trump.”

 

The New York Times: Trade Adviser Warned White House in January of Risks of a Pandemic

 

By Maggie Haberman

April 6, 2020

 

Key Points:

 

  • A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.

 

  • The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China’s leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States.

 

  • “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,” Mr. Navarro’s memo said. “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”

 

  • Dated Jan. 29, it came during a period when Mr. Trump was playing down the risks to the United States, and he would later go on to say that no one could have predicted such a devastating outcome.

 

  • A second memo that Mr. Navarro wrote, dated Feb. 23, warned of an “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1.2 million souls.”

 

  • At that time, Mr. Trump was still downplaying the threat of the virus. The administration was considering asking Congress for more money to address the situation, and the second memo, which circulated around the West Wing and was obtained by The Times, urged an immediate supplemental spending appropriation from Congress of at least $3 billion.

 

  • Among other things, the memo called for an increase funding for the government to purchase personal protective equipment for health care workers, estimating they would need “at least a billion face masks” over a four-to-six-month period.

 

  • Mr. Navarro’s memo is evidence that some in the upper ranks of the administration had at least considered the possibility of the outbreak turning into something far more serious than Mr. Trump was acknowledging publicly at the time.

 

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