Trump projects sense of normalcy, but West Wing still has a long way to go – POLITICO

WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump urges businesses across the country to reopen and Americans return to work, he and his administration project a sense of normal after months of disruption from the coronavirus.

Trump spends week meeting White House governors and restaurant managers, while Vice President Mike Pence travels to Florida to meet with Governor Ron DeSantis and deliver personal protective equipment to a home nursing.

Not far behind the scenes of the west wing, however, normality is still far away. Trump's best employees are increasingly working from home. The White House began planning more teleconference meetings after two staff members tested positive for Covid-19, including one of the President's military valets. Caregivers are now required to wear masks around the White House and face-to-face meetings, if available, are held in the largest conference rooms possible.

Even the White House mess, where employees eat lunch and coffee, has closed and is only open through the take-out window.

America's most prominent office – with all the tests, resources and doctors it needs – continues to struggle to keep its employees and officers safe, even if more than one dozen states reopen businesses, restaurants, parks and beaches. The struggles of the White House and the ongoing review of its health measures provide a window into the countless challenges faced by thousands of businesses and employers as they contemplate bringing back non-essential workers.

"It is impossible to distance oneself socially in the west wing" – White House official

The corridors of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, opposite the White House, are mostly empty, according to senior administration officials – with the exception of the vice president. He led meetings in the building last week in a secure room over the phone instead of holding a court in the situation room after his press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive.

"I haven't seen Mike Pence, and I miss him," Trump said Wednesday in a meeting with the governors. A White House official said that Pence hadn't been in the west wing for a little over a week.

The positive diagnoses of Miller and the valet of the president quickly disrupted the routines of the west wing, even if some aides worried about the precautions which did not go far enough. For weeks, the White House seemed to take a relatively casual approach to potential exposure to the coronavirus – the president having chosen not to wear a mask even when meeting business leaders and governors, or was traveling outside of Washington.

"People don't feel as though the White House had initially taken the threat of the coronavirus seriously," said a former senior administration official. "It is impossible to distance oneself socially in the west wing."

"Everything is often so cavalier, especially when people take their bearings from above," added the official.

The vice president's staff is expected to resume its "normal routine" this week, said an official, as Miller continues to self-quarantine at home. She is not expected to return to the west wing for weeks and another Pence press officer has temporarily taken up duty. Also isolated, her husband Stephen Miller, another senior White House official who has worked for Trump since the 2016 campaign.

Katie Miller's positive coronavirus test has greatly worried other White House aides because she and her husband have spent a lot of time in the west wing – Stephen Miller writing all of the president's speeches and ranging from desk to desk to retrieve material for these remarks. He is also close to other longtime collaborators, including deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and family members of the president, such as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

As another White House collaborator put it, Katie Miller's diagnosis gave the impression of a "very close call."

In public, Trump has not fully recognized the proximity of the coronavirus threat to the west wing and its orbit. He and his coworkers were so eager to restart the economy, which they saw as a key selling point for Trump's re-election, that they did nothing to mitigate this message. , including making the White House appear too alarmed by Covid. -19 within its own walls.

“The country is ready to start reopening safely. The White House cases remind us that we have to be diligent, but you can continue to work safely by following health precautions, "said a third White House official. "While many feared that the two positive cases in the west wing would lead to an epidemic of many cases, the White House followed directions for the reopening of American Again and was able to contain the cases with no positives Businesses across the country are going to have to adapt to new procedures like the White House has done. "

Although Trump was a cheerleader for the reopening of the country and promised better performance in the third quarter of this year, senior economic officials and health experts spent the weekend offering much more assessments measured.

"It will take time to come back," said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in a rare "60 minute" interview. "The economy will recover. This may take some time. This can take a while – it could extend until the end of next year. We really don't know. "

The president remains focused on the positive, even in the midst of signs that challenges remain.

Trump has called the second half of this year a "transition to greatness" for the economy, even though the number of unemployed Americans has reached around 36 million people in the past week.

"Part of the pivot of health concerns to the economy comes from the President's natural interest," said a Republican close to the White House. "He is much more comfortable in the path of economic policy than with health care, and (director of the National Economic Council) Larry Kudlow has a good amount of juice with the president. I don’t know any of the health professionals he has that relationship with, even if he likes Dr. Deborah Birx "- the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator.

Obstacles await us. Many large companies would like to be relieved of the responsibility by the next relief and recovery plan if workers fall ill with Covid-19 after returning to offices and factories. The White House is in favor of this decision, say administration officials, but Congress seems to be weeks away from spending another major package as Republicans are wary of the trillions of dollars already spent.

The president remains focused on the positive, even in the midst of signs that challenges remain. On Friday, as he spoke of the promise and his hope for rapid development of a vaccine at the Rose Garden, Trump was surrounded by his senior health officials. They stood behind him stoically, wearing face masks, as he encouraged "the opening of America".