Trade Advisor Warned White House of Coronavirus Pandemic in January

A memo from Peter Navarro is the most direct warning known to have circulated at a key moment among top administration officials.

A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.

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...

While President Donald Trump played down concerns about the coronavirus in January and February, a top White House adviser warned that a coronavirus pandemic could cost the country trillions of dollars and endanger millions of Americans, according to two new reports.

Peter Navarro, the top trade and manufacturing aide to the president, laid out the warning in two memos - one on Jan. 29 and another on Feb. 23, according to reports from the New York Times and Axios. Trump has repeatedly said that no one could have predicted the...