8/1220
Moments before President Donald Trump entered the room for his recently reinstated daily coronavirus briefing Monday, three aides preceded him: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, budget chief Russell Vought and a new face. "Wait, by the way, the gentlemen -- you know everybody ... This is Scott Atlas. Do you know that?" Trump asked. The man Trump was pointing to was Dr. Scott Atlas, a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution who frequently appears on Fox News and has advised Republicans in the past. And crucially, unlike the government's medical experts who have advised Trump until now, has adopted a public stance on the virus much closer to Trump's -- including decrying the idea that schools cannot reopen this fall as "hysteria" and pushing for the resumption of college sports. Several months into the pandemic sweeping the nation, Atlas made his debut in the briefing room with a new title: adviser to the President. "He's working with us and will be working with us on the coronavirus," Trump said. "And he has many great ideas. Atlas has been an extensive critic of severe lockdowns and publicly agreed with the President on all of those above measures. He joins Trump's team at a time when he finds himself increasingly at odds with the other medical experts in his administration, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx.
Although Monday was Trump's first public introduction of Atlas, multiple sources with knowledge of the relationship told CNN that Atlas has been informally advising Trump for weeks. Trump first noticed Atlas on Fox News, where he asserted it doesn't matter "how many cases" there are in the US, wrongly claimed those under 18 years old have "essentially no risk of dying," implied teachers who are at high risk for contracting Covid-19 should "know how to protect themselves," baselessly claimed "children almost never transmit the disease" and without evidence blamed a rise in cases in southern states on protests and border crossings. "I'm an adviser," Atlas said on Fox News Monday night when asked about his new role. "I was asked by the President to advise him and it's obvious that the answer is, 'Yes, sir, and any way I can help I will do so.'" A trained medical doctor who attended the University of Chicago School of Medicine, Atlas has advised Republicans in the past, including Rudy Giuliani, the President's personal attorney who has also fanned conspiracy theories about coronavirus. Several of the President's allies welcomed Atlas to his team, viewing him as a voice with medical credentials that agrees with their skepticism of guidance and advice from experts such as Fauci and Birx. On his radio show this week, Rush Limbaugh praised Atlas and said "he is countering Fauci."
