Donald Trump has been more than a little lax when it comes to his response to the coronavirus outbreak. And frankly, that’s an understatement.
He essentially refused to act at all until the whole ordeal had all but blown up in our faces, then worked at a snail’s pace moving forward, and is now already rushing to get things back to “normal” as the death toll continues to rise with each passing moment.
It’s safe to say the guy has never taken this thing seriously. At least, not when it comes to the American public that is.
However, according to a new bombshell report from the Washington Post, Trump’s White House was certainly reacting to things a whole lot differently when it came to themselves.
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The new report alleges that a team on the National Security Council felt that the growing outbreak of COVID-19 was a very real threat to the United States’ government’s ability to function, so they scrambled to find enough masks to protect their people… In mid-March, when the White House was still telling the American public that they shouldn’t be wearing masks to protect themselves from the life-threatening virus.
Evidently, the NSC team knew that the shortage of PPE was imminent and the federal government had a rather small stockpile. So, one senior NSC official started looking at foreign governments to help with their issues, according to a source familiar with the situation.
As a result of the official reaching outside of the US for help, a donation “of hundreds of thousands of surgical masks from Taiwan” was made to the federal government for their own use.
The report from the Post reads, “While the bulk of Taiwan’s goodwill shipment went to the Strategic National Stockpile, 3,600 were set aside for White House staff and officials, administration officials said.”
One official speaking on the condition of anonymity said, “While the administration had detailed pandemic response plans, somehow those did not include maintaining a supply of masks for White House personnel. That was a lesson learned. We did look at buying some, but couldn’t find available supply.”
A spokesperson from the White House has denied that there was a shortage of masks in their stockpile, but would not reveal how many they did have or why the NSC turned to a foreign country for donations.
The move by the NSC in mid-March, signaling a dire urgency for masks, is starkly different from the information the American people were getting at the time, as the Trump administration was still discouraging the use of masks by civilians, saying they weren’t necessary for healthy people and needed to be saved for healthcare workers.
Since then, the CDC has strongly recommended that every American wear a face mask should they have to leave their homes.
“Because of that guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House was not issuing masks to its staff, according to two officials,” the report continues. “But inside the NSC, a top deputy was convinced that face coverings should be used more broadly to protect both his team and the public at large.”
It really just goes to show where their priorities do and always will lie.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
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