Unlike most days, today I am looking forward to Trump’s press conference. Because unlike most days, today the New York Times obtained a memo written in late January by trade advisor Peter Navarro (not known to be the brightest bulb, but one who knew what was going on in China), advising Trump exactly as to what was coming should Trump and the United States not prepare:

The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China’s leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States.

“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,” Mr. Navarro’s memo said. “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”

“No one could see this coming,” huh? It sounds like Peter Navarro saw what was coming, and predicted exactly what was about to happen. It gets even worse:

A second memo that Mr. Navarro wrote, dated Feb. 23, warned of an “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1.2 million souls.”

At that time, Mr. Trump was still downplaying the threat of the virus. The administration was considering asking Congress for more money to address the situation, and the second memo, which circulated around the West Wing and was obtained by The Times, urged an immediate supplemental spending appropriation from Congress of at least $3 billion.

So some interesting questions should arise during the press conference today. What was done in response to these memos? Indeed, the reporters should be ready to cite Trump’s exact public statements made commensurate to having had these two warnings.

“Mr. President, despite having read this memo, on February __ you said: ‘ ….. ‘  can you tell us why?”

“And why did you keep repeating: No one could’ve predicted this, when you had a prediction?”

Trump should be forced to address those questions, and the whining about how “rudely” the reporters ask questions won’t get him much sympathy today.

Actually, Trump had information that people in the past would have given anything to obtain. He knew exactly what was coming, and had six weeks to two months to prepare.

Yes, today for the first time in a while, I am looking forward to the press conference, because Trump has some explaining to do.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom