Trump officials furious with national security aide who wears a mask: report

On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that a number of Trump administration officials are angry with a senior national security official — because he wore a face mask in front of them.

"A select group of officials have grown increasingly frustrated with Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger — for putting on a mask shortly after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic," reported Erin Blanco and Asawin Suebsaeng. "Months later, these senior officials still trash Pottinger behind closed doors for his decision to wear a mask at a time when their boss, President Donald Trump, and other senior administration officials chose to avoid wearing face coverings, according to three senior officials and one former official. Some of those close to Trump viewed Pottinger’s mask-wearing as an indication that the deputy national security adviser was publicly challenging the president, one of those senior officials said."

“That was something that angered and confused a bunch of people,” one anonymous official told The Beast. “The thinking was, ‘We are getting tested all the time, what is the point?’ [Some officials] warned him that this was something that could risk pissing off the president. But Matt did not care.”

In recent weeks, Trump has grown more vocal in urging Americans to wear a mask in public places, but is still inconsistently wearing one himself — despite the fact that some officials within the White House, including Pottinger's boss Robert O'Brien, has tested positive.