Much like everything else when it comes to this deadly global pandemic, the Trump White House has yet to get their act together in regard to wearing a face-covering to help slow and/or prevent the spread of the coronavirus — despite the fact that multiple health professional and entities such as the CDC and W.H.O have strongly recommended the practice to help us get over this global disaster sooner than later.
But nevertheless, Trump and his team can’t seem to decide what they wanna do. One day, Donald might recommend it, then you turn around and his bashing the practice all over again. It’s pretty safe to say that, like everything else when it comes to that guy, you can’t depend on him to be reliable in any way.
And as it turns out, the Trump White House doesn’t seem to be too fond of consistency on the mask topic within their inner circles either.
Back in May, all staff members in the West Wing of the White House were temporarily ordered to wear masks while they were at work. Since then, many staff members have chosen to keep up the practice with one senior Trump administration official saying he wears one every day because “I’m not a moron.”
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Given that several West Wing staffers have made the personal decision to protect themselves and their colleagues from the coronavirus, you would think that they would have some respect for the guy that sort of started the trend, if you will.
But according to a new report from the Daily Beast, that is unsurprisingly not the case in the Trump White House.
Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger was one of the few individuals in the administration to don a face mask at the beginning of the virus outbreak, and still continues to today.
But instead of receiving praise and respect for fast action and commitment to doing the right thing, Pottinger’s fellow staff members seem to be unwilling to give the guy anything but grief.
A group of senior White House officials became frustrated with Pottinger for choosing to wear a face mask when the pandemic was first gaining steam and now months later, with nearly 170,000 people dead in America, that group of colleagues still find themselves miffed and trashing him behind closed doors as Trump and several of his senior officials still can’t decide how they feel about face-coverings, according to three senior officials and one former official.
“That was something that angered and confused a bunch of people,” one of the officials familiar with the situation said. “The thinking was, ‘We are getting tested all the time, what is the point?’ [Some officials] warned him that this was something that could risk pissing off the president. But Matt did not care.”
To make matters that much worse, the report goes on to reveal that it’s not just Pottinger’s colleagues who have trashed him. According to the Beast, Trump himself has made fun of his Deputy National Security Adviser for wearing a face mask in front of him — allegedly joking that he’s not sure if Pottinger ever takes the mask off.
Because evidently maturity is no longer a requirement for the president of the United States of America — even in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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