Cloud Hosting

Senior health officials in the Trump administration were taken aback last Monday when the president's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, accused them of being part of the "Deep State" during a meeting that was supposed to be about COVID-19 and the Strategic National Stockpile.

Why it matters: Five days after Navarro's private comments toward the FDA, the president echoed Navarro's sentiments with a pair of Saturday morning tweets and tagged Stephen Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Behind the scenes: According to two sources in the Monday meeting, Navarro had aggressively confronted FDA officials, saying, "You are all Deep State and you need to get on Trump Time." (That's the expression Navarro uses to describe the speed that he says Trump demands.)

Senior health officials counter that the FDA needs to follow a rigorous process to ensure that the public can trust that they are operating by the book and by the science, free from political pressure and that whatever therapeutics and vaccines the FDA authorizes are safe for use.

What's next: Late Saturday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted, "News conference with President @realDonaldTrump at 6 pm tomorrow concerning a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus. Secretary Azar and Dr. Hahn will be in attendance."

Read more:
Scoop: The Trump-Navarro mind meld on the FDA - Axios