It was a conversation on that January day between former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama that formed the basis of the vaccination campaign, which debuted Thursday. Because Trump made the decision to not join his predecessors in that historic moment, a person close to the project said, he wasn’t asked to be involved in the public service announcement.
Trump expressed little interest in joining his predecessors to promote the vaccine, and the team that organized the PSA did not view it as likely that the 45th president would participate, leaving little opening for his inclusion.
“He has made no signals of wanting to be included in these types of moments,” an aide to a former president told CNN.
There does not appear to be one single reason for Trump’s exclusion, one person involved in the production said, but rather a sense that his participation was never a real possibility.
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