CNN reports:

President Donald Trump has largely tuned out the persistent coronavirus contagion — which is causing spikes in new cases across 21 states and daily death tolls that reach into the hundreds — to focus instead on reviving both the economy and his own political prospects.

The insistence on pressing forward with reopening and a return to normal, even as cases increase in some areas, has led to concern among some administration officials that Trump and his aides are ignoring an inconvenient truth.

“They just don’t want to deal with the reality of it. They’re in denial,” one administration official close to the coronavirus task force said.

Others close to the President say he his not in denial but instead is focused on putting Americans back to work and providing optimism after a dark period for the country.

The President’s focus in meetings over the past several weeks has been on economic figures and developing a vaccine — not the increase in cases — according to people familiar with the matter. Trump has also begun to question the accuracy of numbers from states and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing case counts increasing in certain areas, one person familiar with the matter said. Trump has previously questioned data coming from governors and the nation’s top health agency. [Continue reading…]