'As some members of the task force tried to stress the dire nature of the situation to the President, the source said Trump repeatedly attempted to change the subject.''President Donald Trump was still struggling to fully grasp the severity of the coronavirus pandemic during a task force meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.
"He still doesn't get it," the source said. "He does not get it."
Trump's meeting with the task force in the Oval Office was his first in-depth meeting with the panel of his top health experts since April. Trump tweeted photos of the task force members, some wearing face masks, surrounding the Resolute Desk Tuesday afternoon.
During the meeting, officials on the task force continued to have trouble convincing Trump to take the pandemic more seriously, the source said.
As some members of the task force tried to stress the dire nature of the situation to the President, the source said Trump repeatedly attempted to change the subject.
"He starts talking about something else," the source said.
The White House disputed the source's account of the meeting, with communications director Alyssa Farah saying: "The President is highly engaged on the fight to defeat Covid and well briefed on the virus."
"He's leading our nation through this crisis and we'd point to the tens of millions of tests we've produced, the massive advancements on therapeutics, and our race toward a vaccine," she said in a statement.
But the source said Trump's mood was noticeably less jovial during the meeting. In past task force meetings with Trump, the source said the President appeared to be in a much more jocular mood. That was not the case in the Oval Office on Tuesday evening.
"His mood lately is not a happy mood," the source said.
One other difference, the source noted, is how Trump and Vice President Mike Pence each respond to the information relayed to them during meetings with the task force.
"He gets it," the source said of Pence. But the source added Pence appears to be "conflicted" in his interactions with the experts on the task force, indicating at times that he understands their concerns while tempering his comments to make sure he remains in lockstep with Trump.'
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Trump still not grasping the severity of the pandemic, source tells CNN, August 5, 2020
Context(SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)) - Avoiding a Second Wave