Trump's chief of staff reportedly wants him to 'avoid drawing attention' to COVID-19

As new COVID-19 cases continue to climb in the United States, President Trump's chief of staff reportedly wants the White House to publicly ignore the pandemic as much as possible.

A new report in The New York Times focused on Republicans breaking from Trump on the coronavirus crisis describes how White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows "has been particularly forceful in his view that the White House should avoid drawing attention to the virus." In fact, the report says that even amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases around the country, some of Trump's "closest advisers" insist that the "best way forward is to downplay the dangers of the disease."

This advice is evidently getting through to Trump, who in a recent interview with Fox News again asserted that the coronavirus is "going to disappear," a prediction he said he'll be right on "eventually."

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Although the Times report describes how some Republican lawmakers have pushed the White House to bring back regular coronavirus briefings led by Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, Meadows has reportedly "for the most part opposed any briefings about the virus." Meanwhile, Trump, the Times writes, now "seems less interested in the specific challenges the virus presents," and David Carney, an adviser to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), told the Times, "The president got bored with it."