Under President Obama, Rhodes notes, the White House had a special office that dealt specifically with epidemic and pandemic threats. That helped the President focus on threats just coming over the horizon and task the necessary staff members with monitoring and researching the potential disaster.
Trump disbanded that office, thus pushing pandemics and epidemics out of sight. His focus was elsewhere — petty Twitter snipes, crowing about himself, and voluminous television watching.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out then how the looming coronavirus threat would completely broadside Trump's presidency and hobble any response. Throwing together a plan at the last minute with the threat already in the country is not the route to management success.
Rhodes then steps through other factors, unique to Trump, that explain his disastrous response to the escalating crisis. It's an excellent piece and not very long, and I highly recommend.
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