New York Magazine - 02.03.2020

march 2–15, 2020 | new york 13

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as a private germophobeand very public xenophobe,
Donald Trump has the intuitive disposition to grasp the severity
of a global epidemic that originated in China. And yet in the
early stages of what may explode into a full-blown crisis, Trump
is making it clear that he is not the Churchill of the coronavirus.
Whatever attributes he possesses that suit him to the task are
overwhelmed by negative qualities: profound superficiality,
a paranoid fixation on loyalty, and a near-pathological focus on
short-term gratification.
Trump inherited from his predecessor a large and capable corps
of disease-prevention experts, including ones who guided the
country through the 2014 Ebola outbreak and deliberately pared
it back. Several officials in charge of pandemic response—Home-
land Security adviser Tom Bossert; Dr. Luciana Borio, the National
Security Council director for medical and biodefense prepared-
PHOTOGRAPH: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES ness; and Tim Ziemer, the NSC senior director for global health

The National Interest:

Jonathan Chait

This Is Fine

As the world reaches

for face masks,

Trump buries his

head in the sand.

At the coronavirus news conference.