'For the love of God, don't do that': Trump's HHS secretary begged him not to praise the Chinese president's pandemic response on Twitter, book says

• Trump's HHS secretary desperately tried to stop Trump from tweeting praise of China's president Xi Jinping over his pandemic response.
• "For the love of God, don't do that," Alex Azar told Trump, according to a new book.
• When Trump ignored him, Azar rushed to other officials to stop him from sending the tweet, but it was too late.

Former President Donald Trump's health and human services secretary desperately tried to stop him from blasting out a tweet praising Chinese President Xi Jinping's pandemic response in January 2020, according to "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History," by The Washington Post's Damian Paletta and Yasmeen Abutaleb.

At the time, the coronavirus had gained a foothold in the US and Trump's officials were trying to impress upon him the gravity of the situation.

"Mr. President, this is really bad. This is getting really bad in China, and this is coming to us," HHS secretary Alex Azar told Trump during an Oval Office meeting that month.

Trump then asked if China was cooperating with the US to combat the spread of the deadly disease.

Azar said China was cooperating to some extent but that it wasn't nearly enough, and that the US needed to put pressure on the Chinese government to force it to do more and allow officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor the situation on the ground.

At that point, "Trump thought out loud, 'I'm going to put out a tweet praising Xi,'" the book says.

Azar immediately responded: "For the love of God, don't do that."

But Trump ignored the plea. He was fresh off of a trade deal with China that he believed would boost his political support in the Midwest and thought it would be smart to tip his hat to Xi, the book said.

When Trump refused to cave, Azar left the Oval Office "and then sprinted across the West Wing, trying to outrun President Trump's tweet," according to the book.

He appealed to White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, saying, "Robert, you've got to stop this. You can't let him tweet praising President Xi. It's premature. It's not accurate. We can't do this."

Azar also planned to ask then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to intervene and prevent Trump from sending out the tweet. But it was too late. Dan Scavino, who was then Trump's primary social media advisor, had already drafted the tweet and secured Trump's approval.

"China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus," Trump wrote on Twitter on January 24, 2020. "The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American people, I want to thank President Xi."

To date, more than 600,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and more than 33 million have been infected. Tony Fabrizio, the Trump campaign's top pollster, released a report in February which found that Trump's disastrous handling of the pandemic may have cost him the presidential election.

In addition to not heeding his advisors' recommendations in the early days of the pandemic, Trump frequently and publicly cast doubt on top scientists like Dr. Anthony Fauci; refused to follow CDC guidelines; and contracted the disease himself last October.

Several other people in the White House, including Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, and his chief communications director Hope Hicks, tested positive, and more than 50 people in Trump's overall orbit caught the virus.