President Trump rang in the year 2020 in Palm Beach in blissful denial of the crisis about to confront his administration. A mysterious virus was infecting people in China, spreading quickly. The World Health Organization was on alert. On January 3, U.S. intelligence agencies included information about the virus in the President’s Daily Brief, but Trump did not have the interest or the attention span to read his national security briefings. Plus, this was Trump’s vacation week, and he had other things on his mind. Golf rounds. Cable shows. Twitter taunts. Mar-a-Lago mingles. Buffet dinners.
...more
