President Donald Trump arrives for a briefing on the U.S. response to coronavirus. The Secret Service member, right, is wearing a face mask.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Trump’s Dismissal of Covid Risk Paved Way to White House Outbreak
Virus infections among White House staff escalated as the president looked past the dangers.
From the pandemic’s earliest days, President Donald Trump was of two minds on coronavirus.
In public he was dismissive and belittling of the virus, and those who feared it. In private, for all his bravado, he acted like a man who dreaded catching it.