By Brian Nguyen

The Trump administration has a loose relationship with the truth, to put it nicely. To be frank about it, they lie, and they lie often. The White House under Trump has repeatedly put out false information such as lying about the crowd size during the inauguration, and Trump infamously adding to a hurricane's projected impact using a sharpie. The president himself actively pushes conspiracy theories while discrediting career staff as the "deep state."

Now, the United States is facing the prospect of a coronavirus pandemic—where truth and transparency can make the difference between containment or disaster. While the former director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is warning a pandemic is “inevitable,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says the US has the outbreak contained and encouraged people to buy the dip in stocks. The problem is, the Trump administration fired the government’s pandemic response chain back in 2018. What do you think?

The team in charge of tackling issues like the coronavirus was fired in 2018, and it’s unclear if the Trump administration ever reformed the team. Here’s how an administration official justified the cuts to the Washington Post at the time:

Another administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, acknowledged it was only one of many administration priorities. “In a world of limited resources, you have to pick and choose,” he said. “We lost a little bit of the leadership, but the expertise remains.”

Recent reporting from Foreign Policy suggests the administration never addressed how they would handle an outbreak of an infectious disease like coronavirus.

For the United States, the answers are especially worrying because the government has intentionally rendered itself incapable. In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion. If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response, the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is — not just for the public but for the government itself, which largely finds itself in the dark.

“The Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command... In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion” https://t.co/aDfkwO08wq — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) February 25, 2020

With the world on the brink of crisis, it would be nice to have a president who knows what he’s doing ... instead we have Donald Trump https://t.co/AV6xQ4zXrR — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 25, 2020

According to Trump, however, things are under control.

The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020

Here’s how White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow put it:

Larry Kudlow claims on CNBC that everything is absolutely fine after the head of CDC says Americans should prepare for the coronavirus to spread:



"We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight. We have done a good job in the United States." pic.twitter.com/NsLTDt68MG — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 25, 2020

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