Trump furious cruise ship passengers with illness brought to U.S.

WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump was infuriated that 14 U.S. citizens who had tested positive for coronavirus were permitted to return last week to the United States, said two senior administration officials. The decision took the president, a self-declared “germophobe,” by surprise.

Officials at the State Department decided to bring back the citizens, who had been quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, after consulting with a senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention objected, concerned that the passengers, among hundreds of Americans being evacuated from the ship, could spread the virus. News organizations reported on the decision Monday, and the passengers arrived in the United States that day.

Trump, furious at not having been briefed on the Americans who had tested positive, relayed his anger to Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services secretary, and other top officials. They then alerted the White House interagency task force on the coronavirus, which Azar oversees. One official said Trump views shutting the borders to infected people as critical to keeping the country safe and wants to be seen as managing a proper response.

The top State Department official on the task force is Stephen Biegun, the deputy secretary of state.

During the early legs of a four-day trip to the West Coast meant to bolster his reelection effort, Trump paid close attention to Fox News’ coverage of the Diamond Princess that played aboard Air Force One.

Word of Trump’s anger already had begun circulating among officials Tuesday morning. The Washington Post first reported on it Friday.

In 2014, during an Ebola crisis in Africa, Trump, who was then a private citizen, angrily demanded that the Obama administration cancel flights and bar anyone infected with the virus from entering the country.