Trump received ‘more than a dozen’ intelligence briefings on coronavirus threat in January and February, report says

President reportedly continued to play down the threat even as he received frequent warnings

Donald Trump received more than a dozen US intelligence briefings that warned of the growing threat of the coronavirus in January and February, according to the Washington Post.

The warnings were included in the president’s daily briefing, which outlines each day the most pressing information and security threats.

According to the Post, the briefings “traced the virus’s spread around the globe, made clear that China was suppressing information about the contagion’s transmissibility and lethal toll, and raised the prospect of dire political and economic consequences.”

The newspaper cited unnamed current and former US officials, and said the briefings were just one part of a “broader collection of worrisome signals” that was being presented to the White House at a time when the president was still publicly downplaying the threat of the virus.

The report is likely to raise further questions about the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 56,000 Americans.

The president repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus to the US throughout January and February, at the same time he was reportedly receiving the warnings from US intelligence.

On February 26, when the number of confirmed infections was still relatively low, Mr Trump said: “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” The next day, he said the virus “is going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” As late as March, the president persisted in playing down the threat. On 10 March, Mr Trump said: “Just stay calm. It will go away.”

One day later, the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic. As the stock market plummeted, Mr Trump declared a national emergency and banned travel from Europe in an effort to contain the outbreak.

The White House has repeatedly denied that Mr Trump was slow to respond to the threat of the pandemic. Instead, the administration has attempted to shift the blame on to state governors for the rapid spread of the virus across the US.

The Post said the US officials said the frequency of briefings about the coronavirus threat "reflected a level of attention comparable to periods when analysts have been tracking active terrorism threats, overseas conflicts or other rapidly developing security issues."