Team Trump received pandemic warning - in January 2017
Trump recently said that one can "never really think" something like COVID-19 might happen, but his team was warned about something extremely similar.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/team-trump-received-pandemic-warning-january-2017-n1161811
Donald Trump's presidential transition period was an unusually chaotic period. To be sure, the crash-course process is difficult for even the most prepared and well-organized operations, but the Republican's team struggled more than most. As Inauguration Day approached, the incoming administration simply wasn't prepared to govern.
That was not for lack of effort on the part of the outgoing Obama administration. The week before Trump took the oath of office, Obama's team prepared an exercise in which the incoming team was presented with a series of hypothetical scenarios -- including one in which the world faced a deadly viral outbreak -- and how the U.S. federal government would have to respond.
Politico reported today on those exercises, and the fact that several attendees described the atmosphere as "'weird' at best, chilly at worst."
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In theory, the session should've helped prepare the Trump administration for the crisis that's currently unfolding. In practice, it didn't quite work out that way.