ANALYSIS/OPINION Ten days: After an early coronavirus warning, Trump is distracted as he downplays threat

Instead, enabled by top administration officials, Trump largely attempted to pretend the virus did not exist — spending much of his time distracted by impeachment and exacting vengeance on his political enemies. He also carried on as usual with showy political gatherings and crowded White House events.

The period would presage Trump’s disjointed and often dismissive approach to the virus in the months to come, as the president and his aides repeatedly sought to diminish the danger of a pandemic that has now claimed nearly 200,000 American lives while leaving millions more infected or out of work. Trump and White House officials disagree, arguing that the president took definitive steps in the early days of the virus that showed his resolve and helped limit the death toll.

Joe Grogan, former head of the Domestic Policy Council, said that the analyses now, more than half a year later, are “all ex post facto about where this was going to go.” Grogan said Trump was “focused on the issue but getting frustrated with others internally who were panicking about it because they were raising their voices and being hyperbolic.”  ...