Intelligence officials were warning Trump about a pandemic as early as January, but they 'couldn't get him to do anything about it'

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-intelligence-warned-trump-of-pandemic-in-january-2020-3

Sonam Sheth
Mar 20, 2020, 9:27 PM

United States intelligence agencies were warning President Donald Trump about an impending pandemic as early as January, The Washington Post reported.

Officials were giving Trump classified briefings on the matter at the same time that the president was publicly downplaying the risk of the novel coronavirus and insisting the US was well prepared to handle the outbreak.

The Post reported that intelligence documents closely tracked the virus' spread in Wuhan, China, where it originated and as it later progressed through mainland China, but they did not specify when the disease would make it to the US.

"The system was blinking red," one US official with access to the intelligence told The Post. Agencies "have been warning on this since January."

"Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were — they just couldn't get him to do anything about it," the official added.

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