Feb. 27, 2020, dawned much like any other day of Donald Trump's presidency.
At the time, the novel coronavirus had only recently officially arrived on U.S. soil, but stocks were rattled by the worsening pandemic. A historic peace deal with the Taliban was still days away, the embers of impeachment were still lingering in the air and eight major candidates were still viable contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Morning Twitter activity
Trump, who had just returned home from India the day before, was active on Twitter until just after 1 a.m., reposting Republican lawmakers’ concerns about an upcoming vote to reauthorize domestic spying powers, accusing members of the Obama administration of spying on his 2016 campaign and promoting his rally planned for the next day in South Carolina.
Feb. 27 was a Thursday, and only two days later Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would put pen to paper on a historic peace agreement with the Taliban, setting up a conditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and (officials hoped) bringing to an end America’s longest war. On the same day, the Pentagon began to issue its first travel restrictions for Department of Defense personnel in the Middle East due to coronavirus concerns.
Bulking up coronavirus response
Late in the morning, the White House announced that Dr. Deborah Birx, a global health official leading the U.S. response against HIV/AIDS, would become the administration’s coronavirus response coordinator. The appointment came just a day after Pence was picked to lead the White House coronavirus task force over Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and after the White House had denied reports that it was looking to shake up the administration’s response team. And it came in the wake of a stark warning that week by Nancy Messonnier, a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that as the virus spread throughout the country, "disruption to everyday life might be severe."
Later in the day, Pence’s office announced it was adding Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Council of Economic Advisers Director Larry Kudlow to the coronavirus task force.
At a briefing that afternoon formalizing Pence's assumption of command, the vice president turned to Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, and said, “Let me conclude by saying our best estimate is that the threat to the American public, Dr. Fauci, remains low.”
“This virus has adapted extremely well to human species," Fauci cautioned. "This one has the capability of spreading readily from human to human." He noted that the mortality rate for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, was higher than that of seasonal influenza. "We are dealing with a serious virus,” Fauci said.
Meeting with ‘FBI Lovebirds’ stars
At some point in the afternoon, the president met in the Oval Office with the stars and creators of “FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers,” a “verbatim theater” production based on thousands of anti-Trump text messages recovered by the FBI last year from the cellphones of the former Trump-Russia investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
According to a press release, Trump met with Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson, who play Stzrok and Page, along with playwright Phelim McAleer and producer Ann McElhinney to “discuss the importance of the play” ahead of a live performance at CPAC that was scheduled for 3:45 p.m.
Historically bad day for the Dow
Meanwhile, stocks continued to plummet throughout the day, with the Dow falling 1,191 points in what was — at the time — its largest single-day point drop ever. The Dow finished the day in correction territory a day before the stock market would wrap up its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.
Meeting with supporters
Early that evening, Trump abruptly called reporters to the Cabinet Room, where he was meeting with nearly two dozen Black supporters including conservative commentator Candace Owens, Pastor Darrell Scott, actor Isaiah Washington, Alveda King and the popular conservative vloggers Diamond and Silk.
As each person went around the table and lavished praise on the president, Trump touted his administration’s work on criminal justice reform, including a wave of recent pardons and commutations, his signing of a bill securing federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities for the coming decade and the opportunity zone initiative included in the 2017 GOP tax bill.
He also talked about the coronavirus, offering a rosy prognostication that is far from what has played out in the months since.
Trump called the 15 confirmed cases at the time a “miracle,” touting the “incredible achievement” of the country in fending off the disease, which was crippling China and Italy, and complaining that he hadn’t received enough credit from the media for his administration’s handling of it.