Former Trump economist admits the White House was warned of a possible pandemic disaster in September

Philipson served three years as interim chairman of the administration’s Council of Economic Advisers before resigning in June to resume his teaching role at the University of Chicago. Philipson acknowledged testing positive for Covid-19 less than a month before his departure from the White House, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier, President Trump insisted that no one could have foreseen or prevented the coronavirus outbreak, but Harlow said Friday that Philipson’s 41-page report was presented to senior White House officials in September last year.

Philipson acknowledged that the report was submitted to President Trump or his top officials. “The White House is fully aware of what CEA publishes,” he said.

Philipson noted that it is not uncommon for White House officials to disagree on what course of action the President should take on certain issues. During the first nine months of Philipson’s tenure as CEA president, he said the council was “very successful.” get Trump to follow his advice.

“This is like … [a] one in 100 years of life, and many administrations in the past ignored that, “said Philipson.” There were very few times that I left the oval [Office] when we weren’t on the winning side. Obviously, that was not very popular with all parties and that led to a lot of exclusion and even threats to fire me. ”

Philipson said the contentious process forced him to leave the administration approximately two months before he was scheduled to return to the University of Chicago.

“I was very upset with the process and it was time to go anyway,” he said.