Trump's daily briefings warned repeatedly about the coronavirus in January and February, officials say

Trump heads to the Rose Garden
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

President Trump's daily intelligence briefing included detailed warnings by early January about the new coronavirus spreading through China, ABC News reported in early April. But there were actually prominent warnings in more than a dozen of the classified President's Daily Brief reports throughout January and February, The Washington Post reported Monday evening.

"For weeks, the PDB — as the report is known — 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 Post reports, citing current and former U.S. officials. "But the alarms appear to have failed to register with the president, who routinely skips reading the PDB and has at times shown little patience for even the oral summary he takes two or three times per week."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.