“It’s just fuck-up after fuck-up,” said a senior administration official who works with the coronavirus task force. “I don’t have much more to add [beyond] that.”

The anger expressed in some corners of Trumpworld on Friday was similar to the frustrations those inside the administration have come to feel. For weeks the president’s medical advisers have been increasingly on the outs. But in recent days officials have grown increasingly resigned to the idea that keeping the public informed about the threats the virus poses while maintaining favor with the president is an impossible task…

Central to the dysfunction, officials say, is Atlas, a Rasputin-like figure who has increasingly gotten hold of the president’s ear…

“He’s doing things that you would do if you wanted to tear apart the task force,” one senior Trump administration official, who works closely with the group, said of Atlas. “The president was already doing a fine job ignoring much of the counsel coming out of the task force, but [Atlas’s ascension] has made it even worse.”