US President Donald Trump was warned about the possibility of a mysterious pneumonia-like virus outbreak in the country on January 28, during a discussion in the Oval Office of the White House, according to Bob Woodward, whose investigative reports in the past have played havoc with the lives of many presidents.

In his latest book Rage, which hit book shops across the world amid the pandemic, Woodward, who won two Pulitzer Prizes in his nearly half-a-century old career, says the callousness shown by Trump is likely to see his ouster in the November election.

He says that Robert O’Brien, the National Security Advisor (NSA), had warned the President about the catastrophe which was to strike the US shortly. “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” O’Brien had told Trump, according to Woodward.

“Trump’s head popped up. He asked the Intelligence briefer, Beth Sanner, several questions. She said China was worried, and the intelligence community was monitoring it, but it looked like this would not be anything nearly as serious as the deadly 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak,” Woodward writes in the prologue of the book.

Matt Pottinger, 46, Deputy NSA, who was present during the meeting, also agreed with the views of  O’Brien. According to Pottinger, he had asked one of his contacts in China whether the pandemic reported from Wuhan province was as bad as the 2003 SARS outbreak. “Don’t think SARS 2003.Think influenza pandemic of 1918,” Pottinger’s Chinese contact had told him.

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 had killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide with about 6,75,000 deaths in the US, writes Woodward. 

He says Trump did impose certain restrictions on travellers from China, a move opposed by a number of his Cabinet members. “But his public attention was focussed on just about everything except the virus; the upcoming Super Bowl, the technological meltdown in the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, his State of the Union address and most importantly, the impeachment trial in the Senate.

When the highly-infectious respiratory disease caused by the Novel Coronavirus, known as Covid-19, did come up in settings where he had an opportunity to reach a large number of Americans, Trump continued to reassure the public they faced little risk,” says Woodward in the 450-page book.

He says the President did not elaborate about the disease in his State of the Union address on February 4, which was watched by nearly 40 million Americans. Neither did he talk about the warning given by the NSA. “When I later asked the President about the warning from O’Brien, he said he didn’t recall it. And in an interview with Trump on March 19, six weeks before I learned of O’Brien’s and Pottinger’s warnings, the President said his statements in the early weeks of the virus had been deliberately designed to not draw attention to it,” writes Woodward. “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” the author quotes Trump as saying.

From the prologue, he goes on building a major chargesheet against  Trump for his four-year-long acts of omission and commission. He has put Trump under a scanner and has completed a thorough analysis of  the presidency under him.  It took him 17 interviews with the President during the last four years to collate the materials with which he has built up this work. Also included in the book is how Rex Tillerson, the CEO of an oil giant, was appointed as his Secretary of State and Jim Mattis as the Defence Secretary, both resigning from their posts sooner than expected.

On February 7, when Woodward met Trump for the sixth interview of the series, the author asked the President what was the plan for the next eight to 10 months. “Just do well. Run the country well,” Trump replied. The author asked him to define what does he meant by “well.” “Look, when you are running a country, it’s full of surprises. There’s dynamite behind every door,” Trump had replied. The remaining 11 interviews convinced Woodward that the “dynamite behind the door” was Trump himself. “The oversized personality. The failure to organise. The lack of discipline. The lack of trust in others he had picked, in experts. The undermining or the attempted undermining of so many American institutions. The failure to be a calming, healing voice. The unwillingness to acknowledge error. The failure to do his homework…” the chargesheet goes on and on.

The day Trump inaugurated his presidency in 2016 saw widespread riots all over the US as one of the news channels reported. The run-up to the election to be held in November is full of news that he is in for a sure defeat. How nice it would have been had the world worked as per the whims and fancies of political commentators and the media.

At the conclusion of the interviews, Trump told Woodward in July that he would triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it. We will get to do another book. You’ll find I was right,” the author quotes the President  as telling him.

Rage is Woodward’s 20th book. Maybe his 21st book could be one based on the re-election of Trump as things stand today.

Talking about the electoral system in the US and the forthcoming presidential election, Dr S Kalyanaraman, a one man think-tank based in Chennai,  says, “Trump has achieved something phenomenal in the US economy. Pension savings of the middle class have more than trebled because of his handling of the economy. The stock market has boomed. So the electorate will think of its wallet and vote for Trump. Look at the State rallies. Trump is a phenomenon, remarkable ever since the days of Abraham Lincoln. Even the Black lives which matter will vote for Trump. Electoral college is only the pakkavaadyam; the real fat lady is the economy, stupid.”

“It is the economy, stupid!!!” This expression was coined by poll strategist James Carville during Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. Remember, Hillary Clinton lost in 2016? Most likely former US Vice-President Joe Biden will lose in 2020. However, I am yet to get an answer to the query why Hillary Clinton opted out of the presidential race and allowed Biden in.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

US President Donald Trump was warned about the possibility of a mysterious pneumonia-like virus outbreak in the country on January 28, during a discussion in the Oval Office of the White House, according to Bob Woodward, whose investigative reports in the past have played havoc with the lives of many presidents.

In his latest book Rage, which hit book shops across the world amid the pandemic, Woodward, who won two Pulitzer Prizes in his nearly half-a-century old career, says the callousness shown by Trump is likely to see his ouster in the November election.

He says that Robert O’Brien, the National Security Advisor (NSA), had warned the President about the catastrophe which was to strike the US shortly. “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” O’Brien had told Trump, according to Woodward.

“Trump’s head popped up. He asked the Intelligence briefer, Beth Sanner, several questions. She said China was worried, and the intelligence community was monitoring it, but it looked like this would not be anything nearly as serious as the deadly 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak,” Woodward writes in the prologue of the book.

Matt Pottinger, 46, Deputy NSA, who was present during the meeting, also agreed with the views of  O’Brien. According to Pottinger, he had asked one of his contacts in China whether the pandemic reported from Wuhan province was as bad as the 2003 SARS outbreak. “Don’t think SARS 2003.Think influenza pandemic of 1918,” Pottinger’s Chinese contact had told him.

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 had killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide with about 6,75,000 deaths in the US, writes Woodward. 

He says Trump did impose certain restrictions on travellers from China, a move opposed by a number of his Cabinet members. “But his public attention was focussed on just about everything except the virus; the upcoming Super Bowl, the technological meltdown in the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, his State of the Union address and most importantly, the impeachment trial in the Senate.

When the highly-infectious respiratory disease caused by the Novel Coronavirus, known as Covid-19, did come up in settings where he had an opportunity to reach a large number of Americans, Trump continued to reassure the public they faced little risk,” says Woodward in the 450-page book.

He says the President did not elaborate about the disease in his State of the Union address on February 4, which was watched by nearly 40 million Americans. Neither did he talk about the warning given by the NSA. “When I later asked the President about the warning from O’Brien, he said he didn’t recall it. And in an interview with Trump on March 19, six weeks before I learned of O’Brien’s and Pottinger’s warnings, the President said his statements in the early weeks of the virus had been deliberately designed to not draw attention to it,” writes Woodward. “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” the author quotes Trump as saying.

From the prologue, he goes on building a major chargesheet against  Trump for his four-year-long acts of omission and commission. He has put Trump under a scanner and has completed a thorough analysis of  the presidency under him.  It took him 17 interviews with the President during the last four years to collate the materials with which he has built up this work. Also included in the book is how Rex Tillerson, the CEO of an oil giant, was appointed as his Secretary of State and Jim Mattis as the Defence Secretary, both resigning from their posts sooner than expected.

On February 7, when Woodward met Trump for the sixth interview of the series, the author asked the President what was the plan for the next eight to 10 months. “Just do well. Run the country well,” Trump replied. The author asked him to define what does he meant by “well.” “Look, when you are running a country, it’s full of surprises. There’s dynamite behind every door,” Trump had replied. The remaining 11 interviews convinced Woodward that the “dynamite behind the door” was Trump himself. “The oversized personality. The failure to organise. The lack of discipline. The lack of trust in others he had picked, in experts. The undermining or the attempted undermining of so many American institutions. The failure to be a calming, healing voice. The unwillingness to acknowledge error. The failure to do his homework…” the chargesheet goes on and on.

The day Trump inaugurated his presidency in 2016 saw widespread riots all over the US as one of the news channels reported. The run-up to the election to be held in November is full of news that he is in for a sure defeat. How nice it would have been had the world worked as per the whims and fancies of political commentators and the media.

At the conclusion of the interviews, Trump told Woodward in July that he would triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it. We will get to do another book. You’ll find I was right,” the author quotes the President  as telling him.

Rage is Woodward’s 20th book. Maybe his 21st book could be one based on the re-election of Trump as things stand today.

Talking about the electoral system in the US and the forthcoming presidential election, Dr S Kalyanaraman, a one man think-tank based in Chennai,  says, “Trump has achieved something phenomenal in the US economy. Pension savings of the middle class have more than trebled because of his handling of the economy. The stock market has boomed. So the electorate will think of its wallet and vote for Trump. Look at the State rallies. Trump is a phenomenon, remarkable ever since the days of Abraham Lincoln. Even the Black lives which matter will vote for Trump. Electoral college is only the pakkavaadyam; the real fat lady is the economy, stupid.”

“It is the economy, stupid!!!” This expression was coined by poll strategist James Carville during Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. Remember, Hillary Clinton lost in 2016? Most likely former US Vice-President Joe Biden will lose in 2020. However, I am yet to get an answer to the query why Hillary Clinton opted out of the presidential race and allowed Biden in.

(The writer is a senior journalist)