Washington Post's report exposes White House's 4 failures since coronavirus crisis

Even after his subordinates were growing alarmed, Trump continued to exhibit "little concern."

"By April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away," said Trump.

The third mistake is that the protracted argument between the White House and public health agencies over funding let the narrow window of a timely response slip away.

In late January and early February, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent letters to the White House asking to "use its transfer authority to shift 136 million dollars of department funds into pools that could be tapped for combating the coronavirus" but they were turned down.

The White House argued that appropriating so much money when there were only so few cases in the United States would be "viewed as alarmist."

A few days later, the White House budget team again struck down a $4 billion supplement request from the HHS, denouncing the sum was an outrage. The White House only relented weeks later when the possibility of a national outbreak became much more substantial, granting the HHS $2.5 billion.