COVID-Infested Trump Ramps Up the Chaos in White House Cesspool

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/covid-infested-trump-chaos-white-house


COVID-Infested Trump Ramps Up the Chaos in White House Cesspool
West Wing staff — those who remain, at least — now have to deal with a somehow even more erratic Trump on top of putting themselves at risk of infection.
By Eric Lutz
October 7, 2020


Donald Trump has spent the last four years blindfolded behind the steering wheel, driven by compulsions, plowing through whatever is in his way — laws, norms, institutions, common sense, decency, other people. But with an out of control pandemic, the nation in disarray, and stricken by the coronavirus himself, the wheels seem to be coming off this clunker of a presidency. And yet, he can’t stop putting the pedal to the metal, trying to motor forward — now, apparently, under the influence of a cocktail of experimental drugs.

The White House has been in a state of chaos as COVID continues to roil the West Wing. More than two dozen in Trump’s orbit, including top White House staffers and campaign aides, have been infected so far. The latest to test positive: Stephen Miller, the president’s senior adviser and lead anti-immigration zealot. Others to have come down with COVID since the Rose Garden nomination ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s third Supreme Court pick, include Kayleigh McEnany and several others in the White House press shop; several advisers and outside consultants, like Chris Christie; campaign manager Bill Stepien; three reporters; at least two White House residence staffers; and three Republican senators. And then there’s Trump himself, who remains ill — just how ill is anyone’s guess, thanks to obfuscation by his doctors and administration officials — but insists on carrying on with business as usual.

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Indeed: Speaking Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted 300,000 to 400,000 Americans could wind up dead from coronavirus by the time a vaccine is finally available next year if precautions aren’t followed this fall and winter. But Trump has continued to thumb his nose at the virus, even as it puts his own health and those close to him at risk and sends his administration into crisis. The White House has adapted somewhat to its new reality, with mask-wearing becoming more prominent and some health guidelines finally being followed. But Trump’s presence threatens to undermine those attempts to contain the outbreak, driving fear among officials that they could be the next to test positive. “He’s the president, we can’t run away from him if he approaches,” a senior administration official told the Daily Beast. “But the circle of people who feel comfortable telling him if he’s being inconsiderate is very small.”

The administration, it seems, is falling apart — and the destruction is being hastened by an unhinged president wholly at the mercy of his whims and neuroses. Some in the administration have attempted to downplay the chaos, though it's been hardly reassuring. “We feel comfortable working here,” White House communications director Alyssa Farah said on Fox News Tuesday, the morning after Trump returned home from the hospital. “Those of us who are still here.”

[tanyev]

1. You absolutely can run away from him if he approaches.

Lock your office door. WORK FROM HOME. What don’t they get about this?