Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History
by Yasmeen Abutaleb, Damian Paletta
View on GoodreadsTrump's idea of quarantining infected Americans at Guantanamo Bay, a scrapped plan to mail masks to households, white powder sent to Fauci. Abutaleb and Paletta draw on more than 180 interviews to trace politics overriding public-health advice, and not one of those people defended the response as a whole.
Core ideas
- Bullying as management: In the authors' words, "The whole pandemic response was managed through power, intimidation, and bullying."
- A shadow task force: Jared Kushner ran a parallel operation, and protective gear from the Strategic National Stockpile went to his drive-through testing sites.
- Sicker than disclosed: At Walter Reed, Trump's oxygen levels were in the 80s, and the FDA's Stephen Hahn was pressed to authorize his treatment before learning who it was for.
Published2021
Pages496
ISBN9780063066052
ReadJun 2026
