Thread by @saletan

NYT details the direct warnings Trump received about the virus in January, from "epidemiologists, scientists, biodefense officials, other national security aides," and his "own health secretary."

Now he's pretending they all underplayed the threat. nyti.ms/2XjZK2u

Trump "is particularly difficult to brief on critical national security matters, according to interviews with 10 current and former intelligence officials familiar with his intelligence briefings. The president veers off on tangents and getting him back on topic is difficult."

"He has a short attention span and rarely, if ever, reads intelligence reports, relying instead on conservative media and his friends for information."

"Mr. Trump rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview, the officials said."

"Unlike [GW] Bush, who questioned assumptions underlying the analysis, or Barack Obama, who cited analysis from deep in his written briefing, Mr. Trump does not appear to read the document or to otherwise prepare beyond bringing in information he picked up from personal sources."

"He counters with his own statistics ... Directly challenging him, even when his numbers are wrong, appears to erode Mr. Trump’s trust ... and ultimately he stops listening."

McMaster "would sometimes interject ... to correct Mr. Trump, but the president would ignore him."

"Any discussion of Russia could upend the briefing, devolving into complaints by the president that he was unfairly being attacked."

His current briefer "sidesteps the risk by broadly covering election threats not just from Russia but also from China, North Korea and Iran."